IIOHN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
107 
the elbow on either arm, fitting tightly. These serve to retain small articles 
such as the quid of native tobacco or the pipe. 
Jjy the females similar rings are worn, but less frequently, and once or twice 
I noticed them worn below the elbow. 
Waist-belts. 
Afales .—Hair string is coiled so as to form a skein or hank, from 24 inches 
to 32 inches long, and containing 50 or more strands, the two opposite ends of 
the skein being bound with the same material. In most of the .specimens collected 
the skein is loose and open, and the individual strands a good deal kinked ; in 
others it is slightly twisted so as to form a compact single cord. When worn 
the two bights are brought round the waist and tied together. It is to be 
noticed that different lengths of the hair string, constituting the hank, are spliced 
together with fine (wallaby) tendon. 
As previously noticed great value is attached to those girdles, which are made 
from the hair of a deceased warrior, and it was always exceedingly difficult to 
persuade a native to part with such articles. 
A belt worn by a female consists of a large ring of fur made as described 
under head rings. When worn it is twisted into a figure of 8 and folded so as to 
make a double ring, which is slipped first over one arm and head, and then brought 
down over the other shoulder into its place. 
Aprons. 
It has already been mentioned that nearly all the adult males—and this 
is true of both the Arunta and Luritcha tribes—wear a small conventional 
covering that scarcely deserves the name of apron which, however, I have been 
forced to adopt for want of a better term. Occasionally, but not frequently, a 
larger and more efficient covering is worn by the females to which the term is 
fairly appropriate, and as the structure of this is simpler and more evident than 
that of the usual form met with in the males it will be convenient to describe this 
first. 
Closely set, twisted strands of fur-string hang vertically from a thin hair 
or fur-string waist-girdle, the individual pendent strands being looped round the 
15a 
