CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT. 37 



thèse parts for any form of clothing as a protection against climatic influences. The same 

 was experienced by MlKLUCHO MACLAY [1873, 248], during his stay on Astrolabe Bay, 

 where night covering was also not customary, but where under the bamboo sleeping frames 

 in the houses a fire could be made. Afterwards a cap has been met with on the upper Ramu 

 River (Berlin Muséum, N°. 15024) which was made out of rope with the simple „ figure eight" 

 stitch of fig. 9, but it could not yet be made out whether this was intended as a protection 

 for bald people or as an emblem of dignity for the seniores. 

 The woman's cap from Finsch Harbour (Berlin Muséum, 

 N°. 9520), made with the same stitch is probably also an occa- 

 sional wear for mourning widows, who, according to HAGEN 

 [1S99, 262, PI. 39 and 40], hang round their bodies very large 

 and similarly knitted bags. Caps made out of matting to be 

 worn by women over the head and seen on Tugèri women 

 with a prolongation at the back (ScHMELTZ [1904, 214, PL XII, 

 fig. 4]) are also meant for mourning wear; the same with net- 

 work caps of British New Guinea (P2DGE PARTINGTON [1895, 

 PI. 191, N°. 2]). Again, no single pièce of clothing to be found 

 as a protection against climatic influences! Fig ' 9 " " Figure eiglu " stitch - 



What then is the position with regard to the feeling of shame as a motive for dress? 

 From those who corne into contact with a primitive race, data are expected, collected on 

 the spot, which in the old quarrel whether shame is inborn or not, can produce new argu- 

 ments. However as an exchange of thoughts on such an abstract topic is utterly impossible 

 with insufficient knowledge of the language and insufflcient interpreters, observation remains 

 in this case, the only source. Humboldt Bay is in this respect no longer a „pure ground". 

 The contact with foreign morals is already much too plentiful there ; Chinese and Ternatian 

 traders and hunters, some of them married to Papuan women, who wear sarong and kabaia, 

 are already living there since a long time. And now, that fourteen young men from 

 the villages of Tobâdi and Ingrâs, engaged as carriers by the expédition, hâve had an oppor- 

 tunity to see another civilisation at Ternate, the ideas about dress will no doubt be further 

 modified. Thèse young men ail returned to their native land with a box full of clothing, 

 bought with their wages, exchanged against their arms and ornaments, and begged from the 

 Europeans. To possess clothing was evidently their greatest désire, but meanwhile their daily 

 costume was hardly changed; everything being evidently kept in order to use it later on at 

 home as an ornament. As far as the women and girls are concerned, since FlNSCH [1888, 354] 

 illustrated his „ladies of Humboldt Bay", the situation has changed so much, that when 

 visitors arrive at the villages, the naked girls hide themselves entirely or quickly cover them- 

 selves with a pièce of bark or calico. The girls, with the exception of the very youngest, 

 see fig. 6, who came to our houses out of curiosity, for the purpose of barter, médical 

 advice or as carriers of transports, always wore a small petticoat. On adjacent Lake 

 Sentâni the conditions are however still unsullied. According to the western acceptance of 

 the word every man hère still goes about naked, even if he were a man of rank and means 

 and dressed accordingly. Still I was often asked for clothes out of my outfit. At the end of 

 my stay, wishing to utilise a few pièces of white cotton bandages as objects of barter, I called 



