96 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



ing and piercing put an end to man — or perhaps all of these causes 

 combined contribute to the prolix age of these islanders. As they 

 know few infirmities so the} T know few medicines, and cure themselves 

 with a few herbs which necessity and experience have taught them to 

 be possessed of some virtue."" 



Both sexes were expert swimmers and were as much at ease in 

 the water as on land. As they threw themselves into the sea and came 

 bounding from wave to wave they reminded Pigafetta of dolphins. 

 The men were good divers. Legazpi states that they would catch fish 

 in their hands. The children accompanied their parents while fishing, 

 and were so expert in the water that Garcia declared they appeared 

 rather fish than human beings. 



PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 



Clothing and ornaments. — The men went absolutely naked, not 

 even wearing a breech clout. 6 The women wore fringes of grass or 

 leaves hanging from a waistband and sometimes aprons called "tifi," c 

 described by Pigafetta as narrow and of paper-like consistenc} 7 , and 

 said by him to be made from the inner bark of a palm.^ Pigafetta 

 was certainly mistaken as to the origin of this bark. The natives of 



-** Guam were not tapa makers like the Polynesians. No description of 

 bark cloth is now made by them, but within the memory of some of the 

 people still living aprons were made of the inner bark of the breadfruit 

 -Jfluring a long interval between the visits of European vessels, when 

 the supply of foreign cloth became exhausted. In other islands the 

 bark of banyans {Ficus spp.) is also used for this purpose. In the 

 narrative of Legazpi's expedition it is also stated that "palm-leaf" 



» \ mats were used by the women for aprons, the rest of the body being 

 left uncovered. The men wore hats or eye shades of pandanus leaves 

 • while fishing. 



On festive occasions the women adorned their heads with wreaths 

 of flowers or beads and disks of tortoise shell pendant from a band of 

 red spondylus shells, which "they prized as highly as Europeans prize 

 pearls," also making belts with pendants of .mall coconuts, nicely 

 fitted over skirts or fringes of roots of trees, thus completing their 

 gala attire, "which resembled rather a cage than a dress." Their 



«■ Garcia viola y martyrio de Sanvitores, p. 197. 



b Relation of Legazpi. 



c Padre Garcia' s History. It is interesting to find this name for bark-cloth aprons 

 in the dialects of Isabel and Florida islands, of the Solomon group, where it has 

 been transferred by the natives to introduced foreign cloth, which is now called 

 "tivi." (See Coddrington, The Melanesians, p. 321, 1891.) 



d ' ' Vanno per esse ignude, se non che coprono le parti vergognose con una corteccia 

 stretta e sottile quanto la carta, tratta dalla scorza interna che sta fra la corteccia il 

 legno della palma." (Pigafetta, Primo viaggio intorno al globo terracqueo, p. 51.) 



