XII.] 



TATTOOING. 



277 



eveiy part of New Guinea that we visited individuals with quite 

 short hair were often to be seen. Some of these were perhaps 

 unable to grow the enormous mop from which the Papuans — 



XATIVE OF AMBOBRIDOI, DOREI BAT. 



"the frizzly- haired people" — derive their name, but in many 

 cases it is a sim of mourninor. 



Although tattooing, as we understand it, is not common, 

 numbers of the Nufoor people^ are decorated with raised scars, 

 such as may be seen in many African tribes. These are produced 

 by the repeated application of red-hot pointed sticks — the con- 

 tinuous moxa producing a lump of gristly hardness beneath the 

 skin. A favourite seat appears to be the shoulder, whence they 

 are sometimes extended downwards so as to meet on the breast in 



^ Dorei Bay is, as it were, the capital of the Nufoor tribe. They inhabit the north- 

 west coast and some of the islands in Geelvink Bay, and, according to their legend, 

 originally came from Nufoor Island (Long Island of the English charts). They claim 

 to have been the first discoverers of fire, which was given to their ancestors by a 

 magician. On seeing it they immediately exclaimed "Nufoor," — foor meaning 

 fire, and mt being the dual " we two." 



