541 



shaving is performed apparently with ease by the barber, and 

 comfort to the person shaven. No equivalent for soap is used. 

 Recently the introduction of bottles has greatly reduced the 

 demand for obsidian, which has to be traded from the north- 

 eastern coast. (21) Conservative experts, hoM^ever, praise the 

 superior sharpness and elasticity of the obsidian razor as com- 

 pared with the best flaked bottle glass. 



Women, when in mourning, shave their hair, but not 

 ^otherwise. In that sex there is a greater variety in the 

 methods of arranging the hair ; for besides being left to grow 

 as it will, in which case it forms the characteristic mop, it is 

 plaited with mud and grease. Some women wear it plaited 

 all over, when their head presents a kind of cafut Medusae — 

 a style called Uruhatvna. Others leave it alone on the front 

 and top, plaiting only the occipital locks into curls, which hang 

 down over the neck. This is, however, a fashion introduced 

 from the Massim, and is called Doio. The plaiting into locks 

 seems to be the correct way of treating woman's hair when it 

 grows long, and it is connected with the fact that the women 

 do not wear a comb, nor have I ever seen a woman using one 

 to comb her hair or to scratch her scalp. With the locks 

 plaited the comb is, of course, unnecessary. 



The natives do not use lime for discolouring their hair, 

 nor are there any other methods of imparting to it an artificial 

 hue. 



The nails are clipped with a sharpened shell, or else are 

 l)itten off. 



The piercing of the septum of the nose is done with a 

 sharp shell, though they sometimes use a broken ring of 

 tortoise-shell, which, when made to grip the septum, acts like 

 a spring and works its way through the soft cartilage by force 

 of elasticity. This last-mentioned method is used when the 

 child is quite young. 



The ear lobes are either perforated with a sharpened shell, 

 or by the tortoise-shell ring method. In the latter case one 

 ring is first fixed on the lobe, and when this has worked 

 through more are added till the opening is fairly large. 

 Should the lobe break they pare the two ends and join them. 



The operation of ear-piercing is performed on all indi- 

 viduals of both sexes without exception ; the nose-piercing, 

 however, is largely neglected. For neither practice waS" I able 

 to find out any support in the native beliefs. 



The hole in the nose septum is used for the insertion of 

 the nose stick f^(?d7;z'^ made from the shell of the Giant Clam, 

 and from other shells, and sometimes of tortoise-shell. This 



(2i)Comp. chap, iv., sec. 4. 



