CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT. 



65 



boy from the left) close to the limit of the hair and again at other times tied transversely 

 over the top of the head (fig. 36, 40, 5* woman from the left, and fig. 213). That the wearing of 

 wigs, with the accompanying fréquent shaving, destroys the vermin, is proved to be an illu- 

 sion ; the wigs of the collection are literally covered with nits. N°. 38 of De CLERCQ, the 

 so-called war-dress of Humboldt Bay, closely resembles the caplike vvig of Nimbûran, N°. 223, 

 (PI. VII, fig. 14) which was worn by a woman of middle âge over lier own fairly short hair, 

 and was indicated by the name bené ûndefra, which word reminds me of bini (Malay = wife) 

 and ondofrâ, which on adjacent Lake Sentâni is the term for village chief. Evidently people 

 intended to intimate that the wearer was the 

 wife of the village chief. If afterwards this 

 suggestion should prove to be correct, namely 

 that this peculiar shape of wig is connected 

 with certain dignity, the analogy of the Finsch 

 Harbour wigs (FlNSCH [1888, 179]) would then 

 corne very much to the fore, of which FlNSCH 

 [1888 — 93, 230] writes: „such coverings of the 

 head appear to be a distinction of the chiefs, 

 for generally they are rare". 



In the hair of the Papuan we often find ob- 

 jects which might becalled c o m b s, but of which 

 the use is not covered by our idea of a comb, 

 as they are never used for combing. With its 

 usually long teeth the object is very well 

 adapted to pull up the mass of hair to its 

 greatest extent (De CLERCQ and SCHMELTZ 

 [1893, 11]). For this reason and in connection 

 with the interprétation mentioned pag. 55, 

 BlRO [1901, 32] calls the combs „Haarkràusler", 

 simply stuck in the hair and thus carried about, 

 in order always to hâve them at hand. The long 

 points also- make it possible, if necessary, to use 

 the combs as scratchers. The fréquent déco- 

 ration of the handle would certainly justify the name of „ornamental comb", also known to 

 western civilisation, hère for women, whilst there the comb is almost exclusively worn by the 

 men. The comb, however, remains principally a se rat ch in g instrument, which in its simplest 

 form consists of a plain pièce of hard wood, pared off at one of the ends, practically like a 

 single, very long tooth of a comb. The collection contains of thèse pins two spécimens (N°. 232, 

 PL VII, fig. 8) of Tobâdi, as hère on Lake Sentâni and elsewhere, worn generally in the 

 hair, over the forehead, straight from the front towards the back (see a. o. fig. 102), also used 

 (see pag. 3) as an instrument for eating and as a tooth pick. It is said that on Masi-Masi 

 thèse small sticks (DE CLERCQ and SCHMELTZ [1893, 12]) are made of the nerve of a sago 

 leaf and serve to kill (?) vermin. Another small instrument however, which De CLERCQ [1. c. 

 16 and 17] found at Wéwé, consists of two small sticks, between which the pediculi capitis 

 Nova Guinea. III. Ethnography. 9 



Fig. 39. Boys of Tarfia. 



