CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT. 



43 



/ 



z 



3 



Fig. 14. '/é- Tattooing figure: 

 n sabe"\ Humboldt Bay. 



Fig. 15. '/s- Tattooing motive: 

 „cMne": Humboldt Bay. 



tations are found on men almost exclusively in the skin of the back, often in great numbers, 



with some fish-eyes in the neighbourhood of the large figures which generally decorate the 



back, but apparently without being connected with thèse and only to utilize the open spaces. 



Once two semi-circular leeches were met with on the back of the left hand, close to 



the 2 nd and the 5 A metacarpo-phalangeal joint, the concave 



side turned towards the fingers. The back of the hand itself 



was taken up by a larger figure. Why the leech is so much 



used as a motive for tattooing, I hâve not been able to ^ / 



ascertain and it is therefore only a guess when I express the 



suspicion, that it is on account of the élégant curves which 



this little animal can assume. 



Indeed, the forest leech, with which 

 everybody who lias travelled in New 

 Guinea has no doubt become acquainted, 

 and to the attacks of which the Papuan 

 is also exposed (once I came across a 

 leech which had fastened itself to the 

 mucous membrane of the eyeball of a young 

 girl), is a graceful animal. When it moves 

 about quickly, the whole body stands at 

 times in an élégant curve and when taken 

 hold of, it twists itself in ail directions. 



Another very common motive for tattooing is that of RJiyti- 

 ceros p licatus Forst. the hornbill, in most cases represented 

 by a square with two small, hook-shaped lines as a tail, the oppo- 

 site corner with a small circle as a head, whilst the wings are repre- 

 sented by a small hook at each of the obtuse angles, fig. 16, 1. I saw 

 this ornament exclusively on the wrist and the back of the hand, always 

 with the head end turned towards the fingers; on several occasions both 

 hands of the same individual were decorated in this manner. The bird is 

 represented flying, at the moment when the wings are stretched out 

 forward, a manner of représentation very common amongst the people of 

 Papua Talandjang and for the ethnographer the most reliable characte- 

 ristic that he has a bird and not a fish before him. In single instances the 

 body had the shape of an oval (fig. 16, 2), whilst on another occasion a 

 & deviating figure, to some extent a disintegration of the drawing, was met 

 with on a man from Tobâdi (fig. 16, j) where it would appear that at 

 point a a couple of legs or a second pair of wings is indicated. The wearer 

 was not suffering from tinea imbricata, and no doubt this is the figure 

 Fig. 16. '/ 3 . Tattooing that was originally applied.The total length was 9.3 cm., the breadth 5.8 cm.; 

 motive: „manai" ; in ail other cases, the length varied between 9 and 10 cm., the breadth be- 

 tween 6.8 and 7.3 cm. The ornament is called in the language of the 



Jôtéfa ^manai" = hornbill, which is however also called mântdbâr or mândûbàr. 



