43 



G. A. J. VAN DER SANDE. 



women of the S. E. coast the married state, but which is sometimes already applied during 

 the engagement, and of which the inside one is called natinia (child) the outer one sinana 

 (mother). THILENIUS [1902, 47] illustrâtes the tattooing of a woman of position of the 



y Laughlan Islands, in which a similar chest orna- 

 ment occurs, which was said to serve in order to get 



Fig. 23. ] /î- Tattooing figures of (/) back 

 Sâgeisarâ. (2)breast; Siarî. 



afterwards to heaven. From Hula WVATT GlLL ]i885, 288] 

 also reports a necklace or chain tattooed round the neck 

 Zi exclusively for married women. The design fig. 23, 2 

 referred to above, was met with on the breast of a widow 

 in the village of Siarî, with a downward curve, descending 

 to the 5 tn rib, extending from shoulder to shoulder; the 

 tattooing on the back was too indistinct to be made out. 

 The same person had in the middle of the forehead a 

 square-shaped design with a small circle in the middle (fig. 24). The arms were without any tat- 

 tooing, also according to her statement (she was wearing a sarong), the legs, but another woman 

 laughingly betrayed the secret that her legs were also tattooed. The whole ofit was done in her 

 youth, and apparently, in her case, no mourning tattooing had been added at the death of 

 her husband. The population of Siarî has probably originated from a crossing of Wendèsi and 

 Numfor peopie. The missionary JENS thinks [1904, 54] that tattooing of the forehead, 

 and also that of cheeks and upper arms, are sometimes distinctive of certain families and in 

 the case of girls is executed at the âge of 14 — 16, whilst some inhabitants of the coast attach 

 to it a preserving force. Not improbably the idea of „totem" is hidden 

 behind this. On the occasion of a short visit to the village of Wâri on 

 Wiak I found the tattooing of the men plentiful and sometimes very élégant, 

 the women also were hère more tattooed than was reported of the other places 

 on this island (De Clercq and SCHMELTZ [1893, 32]). At Kwatisoré, on 

 the contrary, I noticed no tattooing on the men, but the women were 

 tattooed on the face. The men of Nagramâdu had simple dashes on the 

 skin of the arms and their faces were decorated in the same way as those 

 of the women (fig. 22). 



Amongst the tribe of the Sëkânto, living on the Jafûri, (the outflow 

 of Lake Sentâni to the Tami River) with whom, during this expédition, the first intercourse 

 was obtained, according to the government officiai P. E. MOOLENBURGH [1904, 185] tattooing 

 does not occur. As further on amongst another inland tribe, the Manikion, I did not notice 

 any tattooing, (the inhabitants of the Arfak Mountains according to Van DER GOES [1858, 

 165] and VON ROSENBERG [1875,89] also entirely abstaining), the supposition arises that the 

 inland and mountain population generally do not make use of it, or at ail events, to a smaller 

 extent ; and, as far as they do, the custom may perhaps hâve been taken over from the coast 

 peopie ; a question which from an anthropogeographical point of view deserves every 

 attention. 



It is hardly possible to give hère a review of everything that is worth noticing concerning the custom 

 of tattooing in English and German New Guinea, ail the more as, superficially considered, the customs in 

 this respect vary a good deal. Thus, it is very remarkable that in the Berlin Harbour district, in the imme- 



Fig. 24. >/î- 



Tattooing figure of the 

 forehead; Siari. 



