DRESS AND ORNAMENTS 249 



coconut shells over the body. Clothing gets a rinse in the 

 sea at intervals by way of cleansing. 



At the present time the everyday dress is of red cotton, but 

 for the first half and more of the last century the fashion ran 

 all in blue. On ordinary occasions men wear a long strip of 

 cotton, generally red, passing round the thighs and between the 

 legs,* and women drape a fathom or two of cotton about the 

 waist by twisting the ends together ; but for other times there 

 are cotton draperies, sarongs^ Chinese coats and trousers, and 

 also European garments, which, from top-hats to shirts, are in 

 great demand.f 



In the north a chaplet of areca palm spathe with loose ends 

 {td-chbkld) is much worn, and the ear-lobes are pierced to retain 

 short plugs of bamboo, half an inch in diameter, inlaid with 

 silver and with silver pendants. From Kamorta southward the 

 common head-dress is a similar chaplet of pandanus leaf {shanoang)^ 

 or a coloured handkerchief or circlet of calico, and there is a 

 plain ear-distender, one inch or more in diameter and three 

 long, often shaped like a wedge : this is replaced on festive 

 occasions by a large rosette of red and white cotton. 



Other ornaments are bangles and anklets, made by twisting 

 thick silver wire about the limb, and belts and necklaces made 

 of rupees or smaller coins. Rings are worn, either of silver 

 or shell. 



Face and chest are sometimes covered with vermilion or 

 saffron paint, but the natives do not employ any form of tattoo 

 or scarification. 



Hair is usually worn short by both sexes, but there is a more 

 or less distinctive style or fashion at all the islands. On the 

 occasion of a sudden or violent death at a village all its in- 



* Referred to in these pages as kissai, neng, or T bandage, for want of 

 a more accurate expression. 



t For the dress used at various periods, refer to the authorities quoted 

 in other chapters. The earliest clothing — apart from ornamental cords and 

 string bracelets, etc., as are still used by the Andamanese — seems to have 

 been, for the men a strip of bark cloth, and for the women a short petticoat of 

 grass or coco-palm leaf {ngong). 



