ORNAMENTS. 
185 
Ritabel villagers, too, have holiday garb, but it is 
rigorously kept for special occasions. Anything 
gay always goes on the head ; it is amusing to 
think that the considerable quantity of cloth we 
have given in barter has all gone to clothe that 
member, already so amply covered by the mass 
of frizzy hair. The men wear immense ear-rings 
of bone or ivory, so heavy that they often tear 
away the cartilage of the ear. The women have 
a graduated series of holes pierced all round the 
ear in girlhood, and until they can obtain the 
silver or gold rings they desire, the holes are 
kept open with points of thorns or tiny pieces of 
wood. Frequently they die without having ever 
hacl the number of rings to fill the holes, but at 
any rate they hoped to the last, for they were often 
to be seen readjusting the substitutes. Borne also 
have toe-rings and anklets of brass, and there 
is no one that has not an armlet of some kind, 
of brass or ivory, or only of shell or wood. Both 
sexes tattoo a few simple devices on the breast, 
brow, cheek, and wrists, but never anything elabo- 
rate, such as the Papuans have whom we saw at 
the New Guinean ports we have just called at as 
we sailed north. The women think it a mark of 
beauty to have the teeth filed, and some have only 
a narrow black rim left protruding from the gums. 
