CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT. 55 



is raost often entirely surrounded by the colouring, next to this the eyes, less the nose ; the 

 ears ahvays remain free. Presumably, ail thèse local ornaments, also mentioned by BlNK [1897, 163], 

 hâve a definite meaning. The ornaments on the chest of fig. 26, / (black) 26, 2 and 26, 3 

 (both red) with more strongly accentuated forms, suggest that in the first case a fish with 

 several pairs of fins is represented, with fig. 26, 3 on the left breast the leech, on the right a 

 snake and below a bird, provided with wings, struck forward and split. Fig. 26, 2 reminds 

 me of an axe or a sago club. Fig. 2 of PI. XLV also shows breast painting. 



LOOSE ORNAMENTS ; CLOTHING. — Descending from the top to the bottom, the hair at 

 once demands every attention. Leaving it to others to décide whether or not the hair gave 

 to its weare'rs the name of Papuan and acknowledging that straight-haired or wavy haired and 

 red haired people occur, it is indeed allowed to talk about a typical growth of the hair, 

 which, in short, amounts to this, that the hairs which appear at regular intervais out of the skin, 

 join each other, when they become longer, to the number of 60 — 120, and form joint spirals 

 (see Chapter XIII). During their further growth the regular, joint winding is interrupted by 

 outward influences, the more or less stubborn hair spirals demand more room at the top than 

 required at the root and, supporting each other sideways, stand out of the head like a m o p. 

 ÀlEYER [1873, 307] justly wrote to ViRCHOW: „about the hairdress of the Papuans a book 

 might be written". In what follows hère it will be necessary to limit myself to personal 

 observations and what is connected with thèse. Beforehand it should be remembered that the 

 abundance of hair is accompanied with a proportionate quantity of lice. Probably the fréquent 

 shaving is sometimes connected with this, in other cases the itching demands the fréquent 

 scratching with the scratching sticks and combs, and again one often sees how one person 

 cleans the other. As reported of the Arfak by VON ROSENBERG [1875, 89], of British New 

 Guinea by D' Albertis [1880, I, 261], THOMSON [1S92, 68] and Macgregor [1897, 30] and 

 seen by myself at Tobâdi, it is sometimes customary on thèse occasions to eat the prey. The 

 rubbing in of the hair of the head with ashes and water (MACLAY [1873 a, 234]) or the smearing 

 with lime, as sometimes happening outside the Netherlands territory, is not efficacious against 

 this evil. When our carriers from Tobâdi had to remain some time on board the „Zeemeeuw", 

 they were so much troubled with this complaint, that they gave up their colossal hairdresses. 

 Thus the first care the Papuan can bestow on his hair, is to enlarge artificially the 

 circumference of the mop given him by mother nature, by disentangling and stretching with 

 his fingers, with scratching sticks (scratchers) or with the points of the comb, the united, spiral 

 windings. The expression of BlRO [1899, 2]: „Before anything else the hair is frizzled" must 

 therefore not be misunderstood. For the hair originally is already so frizzly, that notwith- 

 standing constant combing, as sometimes prescribed by missionaries to their followers, it still 

 remains more or less spiral. If, on the contrary, it is compressed, as is done by many inhabitants 

 of the Berlin Harbour section, an entirely tangled hairdress is created, as already compared 

 by FlNSCH [1888, 325] and also by PARKINSON [1900, 25] with an old fashioned allonge- wig, 

 l'^lEYER and PARKINSON [1894, PL 45 and 48]). 



The dressing of the mop is done by préférence by a second person, generally a boy, 

 when, in Humboldt Bay, red clay pomatum is at the same time applied. As a préparation for 

 festivities, which are numerous, I often witnessed, how those who were operated upon, sit 

 down on the staging before their houses, armed with an enviable patience, and having each 



