CUSTOMS AND GOVERNMENT. 



275 



Parkixson [1900, PL 17, 19 and 20]), never yet reported of Papua Tàlandjang, is again 

 coming to the fore in Geelvink Bay. On the island of Rôn the mother wears the breastbone 

 and the first cervical vertebra of her dead child. The same thing holds good for the skulls: 

 as well in K. W. Land (ERDWEG [1902, 292]) as in Geelvink Bay they are placed inside the 

 house (sometimes in a korwàr), but 

 in Papua Tàlandjang I hâve never 

 noticed anything of this. The small 

 pièces of wood, sometimes carved 

 with a human figure, which in Geel- 

 vink Bay are at times worn on a 

 cord round the neck, in memory of 

 the deceased, were met with on 

 Lake Jamïïr, which is not surprising, 

 as on the adjacent south-west coast 

 (Lakahia) they were seen by Van 

 DER GOES [1S5S, PI. TT, fig. 16] in 

 a similar shape (see Chapter XII). 



Mourning is also indicated by 

 tattooing; sometimes the image ofthe 

 deceased is tattooed on the back (Van 

 Hasselt [18S6, 592]). 



On the north coast (see p. 52) 

 the colour of mourning is yellow, 

 in British X. G., according to D'Albertis 

 [1880, II, 9], yellow and white are used 

 for the purpose. Other authors mention 

 black as the colour of mourning ; — thus 

 Pratt [1906, 311] writes: "the chief 

 mourner is invariably blackened ail over 

 with charcoal", some instances are known, 

 however, of black hère being used also 

 as the colour of war (D'Albertis [1880, 

 II, 196]). 



Mutilation of the body, disjoining 

 fingers of the left hand, in mourning 

 (Annual Report [1897 — 98, 97 ; 1899 — 

 1900, 73]), as far as I know is mentioned 

 only of British N. G. 



A regular mourning dress, 

 exclusively for women, is in Geelvink 

 Bay, as with the standing person of 

 fig. 174, in the shape of a shirt without 



sleeves, fitted with a hood for the head, the whole made of bark and provided with a number of strips of 

 red calico, which gives a gay impression. This dress, also illustrated by Snelleman [1906, 126], is worn 

 till it is entirely worn out. In the district opposite Yule Island a similar custom exists, for widows only 



Fig. 174. Mourning dress, W en de si. 



