WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS 



55 



Exaggerated forms of this species of 

 ornament are found among some tribes 

 of British Central Africa, where the 

 women wear large plugs of wood or 

 ivory in the upper lip, distending the lat- 

 ter to an extent which, to European eyes, 

 is hideous in the extreme. Similar large 

 lip-plugs, but in this case worn in the 

 lower lip, embellish the features of cer- 

 tain tribes in northwest and South Amer- 

 ica, while smaller ones are found among 

 the Eskimos. The last named, as well as 

 some South Americans, wear discs of 

 this kind in the cheeks. 



The nose, again, is frequently the sup- 

 port of an ornament of some sort. In 

 New Guinea, Australia, and parts of 

 Africa and the Malay states, slender bars 

 of wood or bone are worn through a hole 

 in the septum, while the nose-ring and 

 nose-stud are common in India, and the 

 former among the Tartars. 



CLOTHING AND MODESTY 



From ornament we pass imperceptibly 

 to the question of clothing; and, indeed, 

 there is no real difference, in so far as 

 the former has evolved out of the latter. 

 We may even go further and say that it 

 is not an innate feeling of modesty which 

 has produced clothing, but clothing 

 which is responsible for the feeling of 

 modesty in man. We have only to look 

 at a few of the non-European races to 

 see how entirely conventional this feel- 

 ing is, and how it differs in various parts 

 of the globe. 



The first care of a Mahometan woman 

 surprised at her bath is to conceal her 

 face ; the Chinese lady would feel exces- 

 sive shame at the uncovering of her foot ; 

 the Sumatran at the exposure of her 

 knee, and a woman of a certain tribe in 

 Africa would be terribly upset if the 

 small twig at the back of her girdle 

 should happen to fall off. Some Asiatics 

 think it unseemly for a woman to show 

 her finger-tips, and, in America, a woman 

 of the northwest could not bear to be 

 seen without her lip-plug, while a Carib 

 beauty would far rather appear in public 

 without her girdle than minus her paint. 



Another instance of the convention- 



ality of modesty is seen in certain aspects 

 of Japanese life and ideas as compared 

 with our own. Among this people the 

 two sexes in some places still take their 

 baths in common without finding the pro- 

 cess at all awkward, yet the representa- 

 tion of the nude in Japanese art is rare 

 and even considered improper. With us, 

 of course, the reverse is the case. In 

 few places in England is mixed bathing, 

 even in full costume, allowed ; yet the 

 nude in art, thanks to classical traditions, 

 is common and generally passes unchal- 

 lenged. 



THK NAGAS OF ASSAM, INDIA 



Writing of the Nagas, Mrs. Frank Wilde 

 says that 50 years ago they were savage 

 head-hunters. The girls of this tribe 

 would not marry a man unless he had 

 heads to show as proof of his courage. 

 Having slain an enemy, a warrior may 

 wear a kilt decorated with cowrie shells. 

 Collars are also worn, ornamented with 

 cowries, tufts of goats' hair dyed red, 

 and locks of hair from the heads of per- 

 sons killed. Some tribes wear a curious 

 wooden tail decorated with hard white 

 seed and goats' hair. I have in my pos- 

 session a Naga tail to which are attached 

 long locks of human hair, which must 

 represent the spoil from many a scalp. 



Naga villages are built on inaccessible 

 hills, or along a steep spur ; their huts 

 differ entirely from those of other hill 

 tribes. They have high gable ends, and 

 the roof slopes down and back until it 

 nearly touches the ground. The eaves 

 also almost touch the ground, as shown 

 in the illustration on page 49. The hut 

 is divided into three compartments. The 

 large one in the center is used as a sleep- 

 ing or living-room ; the small division in 

 front serves as a grain store, and here 

 the women pound the rice for making 

 the rice-beer, which is the favorite drink 

 of the Nagas. It is made and stored 

 in the small compartment at the back of 

 the living-room. 



Nearly all the Naga villages have a 

 large hut which serves as a club and 

 sleeping apartment for the bachelors, and 

 not a few have a similar hut for the un- 

 married girls, which is presided over by 



