CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT. 



45 



three or four fingers are added, of which the most outside one is called, cliàrau aie, like the 

 small finger of the human hand. Fig. 18, j of the left half of the back of a man is provided 

 with hooks as well in front as at the back, and one feels inclined to think of a doubling or 

 joining of t%vo animais. The small figure indicated above, drawn in the loins and reaching 

 as far as the nates, resembled fig. 18, ./ and once the cliàrau was found in the shape of 

 n g- I 8, 5 on the middle of the forehead, only 5 cm. high and 5.3 cm. broad. In mentioning 

 the great prédilection with which the figures hère enumerated are used in tattooing I should 

 remark that the word ^cliàrau", sometimes ^chàrchàrau", is also often used for the human 

 being. The figure therefore merits the attention of a further inquiry. 



The same is the case with âbekwe, also called bëgwe, representing a mollusc living in a 

 spiral shell. This drawing is almost met with as frequently as that of the frog, always in the skin 

 of the back, either to the left or to the right, but never two on the back of the same individual. 

 The length varies between 18.3 and 25.5, the width between 9.4 and 12.5 cm. Fig. 19, 1 repre- 

 sents the most common form, of which the head, châbûr or chàbûre, is always pointing upwards. 

 Often however hooks, isj, hâve been added to the spiral, which possibly represents parts of 

 the shell, whilst a short dash along the neck, noticed now and then, (fig. 19, 2), presumably 

 represents, as in the 



f 



Tattooing motive : ^abckiaè''' ; Humboldt Bay. 



case of the frog, young 

 ones or eggs. This mo- 

 tive was also met with 

 several times on the 

 back of the right hand, 

 ± 13 cm. in length, 

 7.5 cm. wide, reaching 

 with the head on the 

 lower arm, sometimes 

 with the spiral twisted 

 to the left, once (fig. 

 19, j) with an inter- 

 ruption in the représentation of the head, at another time so reduced (fig. 19, 4.), that the 

 figure is limited to the back of the hand, but yet with the head turned towards the 

 lower arm. 



A Papuan of Tobâdi who, when asked, wished to make clear what was an âbekwe, 

 made with pen and ink the drawing of fig. 19, 5 in my pocketbook. The hooks, isj or 

 bégwisjam should be curved in the same manner; when this became somewhat irksome to 

 the drawer, he made, evidently for his own convenience, a curvature in another direction, 

 but then turned the pièce of paper round in order to go on in the right manner. 

 The artist still stated that foreigners, ambèri, call the object mdrêgwa (emphasis on 

 the second syllable), possibly the Ternatean name for a shell with commercial value. With 

 fig. 20 the list of tattooing figures taken from the animal world is closed; it was only met 

 with once and then to a length of ± 23 cm. on the left upper arm of a young man. What 

 animal it represents has not been found out; the name, nânïgi, told me nothing. 



As a very commonly used tattooing motive, the ornamented bow has to be men- 



