114 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



bored in it, and is tied tightly round the loins. The 

 convex surface of the shell faces forwards, and the 

 preputium is pulled upwards and clipped under the 

 lower margin of the shell. Both the bamboo case and 

 the shell are useful as a protection against the leeches 

 and thorns of the jungle. 



Small boys go quite naked until they reach the 

 time of puberty, when for a short period they wear a 

 sort of skirt made from the shredded leaves of the 

 pandanns. Though the men like very much to wear 

 round their heads strips of our coloured cloth, they do 

 not normally use any kind of head-gear except on cere- 1 

 monial occasions, when the men who beat the drums 

 wear elaborate hats ornamented with the plumes of 

 birds of paradise. Many of the men wear arm-bands 

 above the elbow and leg-bands below the knee, made 

 of tightly w^oven fibre or of fine strips of rattan. 



The women are rather more clothed than the men, 

 but it cannot be said that they are at all overdressed. 

 The usual garment consists of a narrow belt of bark 

 cloth or grass round the waist, from which there hang 

 a narrow strip of bark cloth in front, reaching about 

 half way down the thigh, and a wider strip, somewhat 

 after the fashion of the tail of an Englishman's evening 

 coat, extending as far as the knee behind. In addition 

 to this, many of the women wear a sort of short waist- 

 coat or sleeveless bodice made of plaited grass or fibre 

 with tags or tassels hanging down in a sort of fringe 

 from its lower edge. Newly-married women wear a 

 sort of apron, or rather a long fringe of shredded leaves, 

 w^hich hangs down from the waist. 



