A PASSIONATE CHILD. 
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face ; but later they get thin, and the skin becomes 
shrunken. They do not dye the hair as the men 
do, and give little time to its arrangement. 1 
never heard a woman sing. They may, but I 
did not hear even the “ li-li-la-a-a-a/' which is 
the spontaneous expression of exuberance and 
content with the man, who also frequently 
bursts into wild happy song. They laugh often, 
however, with true Papuan heartiness. And 
they can scold too ! I once saw a woman rating 
her husband soundly ; he, however, took it very 
coolly, and went on quietly baling water from a 
prahu with a cocoa-nut, wisely letting her ex- 
pend her wrath without a word. I was surprised 
at the violence of passion displayed once by a 
little girl of about six years of age. Her mother 
and friends were sailing from the shore, going 
evidently to a distant garden, and for some 
reason she had to be left behind. She ran into 
the water, screaming violently, and tried to 
clamber into the boat. Seeing this hopeless, 
she came back and threw herself on the sand, 
beating her feet and tearing her hair ; occasion- 
ally she would rise, run a little, and then fling 
herself down again. Her state seemed to excite 
no pity from the onlookers. I tried to divert 
her, but she seemed deaf and blind from grief. 
