CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT. 67 



by making longitudinal furrows at one end, viz. to remove as much material as the distance 

 between the parallel points of the comb must amount to. The often nicely carved handle of 

 this comb (see f. i. FlNSCH [1888 *, PI. XVIII, fig. 1] and BlRO [1901, 32, PI. III]) is therefore 

 just as broad as the row of the points and has at the base of the points a nodium. The other 

 category, with the area of its distribution limited to Netherl. N. G., is manufacturée from a 

 narrower pièce of bamboo, by splitting it over a part of its length in as many strips as the 

 number of points required. Hère too the handle contains a nodium, but just below it a strong làshing 

 of string or métal wire is applied, to prevent the splitting extending too far, whilst the lashing 

 is retained in its place by notches eut out on the sides and back ; finally small wooden 

 wedges are introduced into the splits, in which way a fairly large divergence of the points of 

 the comb is obtained. In conséquence of the natural roundness of the original pièce of bamboo, 

 the points after the spreading are not lying in a flat plane. Above the nodium the handle 

 of the comb often becomes considerably narrower. It is remarkable that both catégories 

 of combs manufactured out of a pièce of bamboo, the one with the parallel and the other 

 with the diverging points, as far as their area of distribution is concerned, are on the north 

 coast, on the Netherlands German frontier, entirely separated by the sphère of the comb 

 made out of loose palmwood sticks; a séparation so complète and absolute that in the vicinity 

 of Humboldt Bay by no manner of means a single bamboo comb could be traced. The west 

 of Xew Guinea, Geelvink Bay and the adjacent islands form the sphère of the bamboo comb 

 with diverging points. The Berlin Muséum contains (N°. 2444) an object, sent in as a comb 

 from Has, Geelvink Bay (probably As, north coast), with four flat, parallel points, without any 

 space between them, a form entirely différent from the Geelvink Bay type and appearing 

 really unfit for use; — but then what object can it be ? Of the three combs of Andai 

 (N°. 233 — 235), the last one (PI. VII, fig. 6) shows the characteristic curl ornament of Geelvink 

 Bay, not recognisable on the photo. I must still observe that, besides the small wooden wedges, 

 small plugs of calico are often pushed up into the openings between the points of thèse 

 combs, probably to prevent single hairs being caught. N°. 236 (PI. VII, fig. 7) of Inagôi and 

 N°. 237 (PI. VII, fig. 5) of Mapâr are the first combs which hâve become known with cer- 

 tainty from thèse more interior settlements, both belonging to the tribe of the Manikion. 

 They can only be used by those men, who, dififering from the hairdress described before as 

 typical of this tribe, carry the mop. Still, according to the bamboo chain of N°. 236, the 

 manufacture is worth a good deal of trouble, whilst the human figure of N°. 237 shows that 

 the ornamental art of the Manikion déviâtes little or nothing from that of the coast district 

 of Geelvink Bay. But the possibility meanwhile remains that the comb was bought of the 

 coast people, with whom an uninterrupted, commercial intercourse exists. N°. 238 (PI. VII, fig. 4) 

 of Angâdi on Lake Jamûr also opens a new territory, belonging linguistically to the south 

 west coast, yet with regard to the combs in close relationship to Geelvink Bay. The handle 

 of this comb occurs exactly on a bamboo ramification, a peculiarity which I also met with 

 in the case of a comb of Finsch Harbour (Amsterdam Muséum, Ser. 6j, N°. 4). 



The appearance of the human figure on this comb may possibly stamp it as an amulet, 

 and I hère call attention to an occurrence, which I witnessed on the 6'h of August 1903, when 

 the expédition had arrived on the marshy and well wooded shores of Lake Jamur, and after 

 attracting the inhabitants of the island of Angâdi by the smoke of a fire, three of us were 



