MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 
Very few young blades can afford to possess one, 
and accordingly it may be lent, either for a considera- 
tion or as a very special favour. ‘The possessor of 
one of these ornaments could easily buy a wife for 
it, and sometimes it is paid as a tribal tribute by 
one who may have to pay blood-money, or is unable 
to give the statutory pig as atonement for a murder. 
Another shell ornament is the armlet, made from 
the lower part of one species of a conical shell; a 
section of this adornment would present the figure of 
a pointed oval, and, according to the part of the shell 
from which the armlet has been cut, its ends either 
meet or overlap without touching. To it they some- 
times attach European beads or little fragments of tin. 
Its manufacture entails a great deal of work and a long 
continued grinding on stone or other hard substance. 
Sam had a very fine one which he presented to a man 
in order that that man might buy a wife, and my head- 
man’s generosity will be understood when I mention 
that one of these armlets fetches 45 at Port Moresby. 
A very affluent person will wear one on each arm, or 
two on one arm, as I sometimes observed was the case 
among the coast natives. This occurred chiefly at 
Hula. 
As regards households and tribal government, the 
Papuan customs are simple in the extreme; there is 
no augmentation of households on the patriarchal 
system of the sons bringing the wives under the 
parental roof. Each household consists of the father, 
mother, and children. ‘The sons when they marry set 
up a separate establishment, and when all have married 
the grandparents usually remain alone. 
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