158 
Bedecking for the Festival. 
and noisy utterances with which the mother had reproved the son, were 
repeated ten times oftener by the daughter who finally brought her dif- 
ficult task to an end by girding the restless creature with some beaded 
strings and a small apron-belt. The older girls, standing in front of a 
looking-glass that had been obtained in barter, were smoothing and salv- 
ing their luxuriant black hair, while the men, sitting up in their ham- 
mocks, and also engaged in tidying theirs, let their wives, who Averc 
kneeling in front of them, paint their feet up to the ankles Avith a bright 
red colour, so that one could be easily deceived and led to believe that 
they were wearing red laced boots. Other groups of girls were busily 
engaged in threading the beads they had received from us to decorate 
themselves with : some of the dear old grannies, on the other hand, were 
tripping it from one pot to another, and hurrying to the paiwari trough 
to taste the brew and cover it more tightly with palnvleaves, while others 
again were adding to the supply of cassava bread or else cleaning and 
putting on the fire the meat intended for the guests. 
551. The chief, in full regalia, Avas up and about by earliest sunrise. 
In a coloured shirt, Avhite trousers, and head covered Avith a European 
cap he sat upon a small stool in front of the house and carried on a con- 
versation with Clement i who, sitting at his side, Avas wearing his dress- 
coat, the stuck-up collar of which half covered his ears and almost reach- 
ed up to the blue hat still wrapped in paper, dementi's Avives had also 
got out their calico clothes to day. 
552. My eyes quickly sought the lovely twin-sisters to admire them 
in their ball-dress, but they were still engaged in stringing our beads, and 
altering their bracelets : their abundant dark hair, all smoothed and 
salved, covered their beautifully formed shoulders. Towards afternoon 
(be whole toilette was completed. 
553. The rivers being the usual means of communication in the Avil- 
derness, all the guests came by corial and notified their arrival at the 
landing place with a loud shout of delight whereupon, under the leader- 
ship of their chief, they drew near the settlement in regulated order. The 
signal of arrival given by the first party had attracted my attention, and 
full of expectation I was looking forward to its appearance. An elderly 
but still handsome manly figure, clothed in a coloured shirt, his head 
covered with an old felt hat, and Avith the staff of sovereignty in Ms hand, 
suddenly drew near from the direction of the landing : lie was immediate- 
ly folloAved by a large number of most handsome male figures. I had 
already noticed much picturesque finery amongst the Warraus but I had 
never gazed on a picture similar to what uoav presented itself. Imagine 
a handsome vigorous male, with the head encircled in a fantastic feather 
cap: the face streaked with a number of fine white and red rectangular 
parallel lines and then the forehead, from around which and where it Avas 
stuck, there hung the Avhite feather-fluff of the Crax alector : the whole 
body covered with black and red coloured right-angled patterns as far 
as the ankles, immediately below which the feet were painted red: the 
powerful neck and equally muscular chest decorated with chains of 
monkeys’ and hogs’ teeth from which tassels, made of pepper-eater skins 
mixed with those of the beautiful honey-bird ( Neotarlnea coerulea) or 
