16 SISSANO. 
the Dutch boundary and come to Sissano in barter. Finally, the Sissano war- 
riors employ large wooden shields (aieripin) of the height of a meter and a 
half and covering the whole of the man. ‘These are decorated with artistic 
~ carving and occur in the towns in extraordinary profusion. On this shield 
the wounded warrior is borne away from the thick of the conflict by the 
women. During an attack the warrior does not protect himself with the 
shield, for its great weight would interfere with his use of the bow. It plays 
a more important part in the defense of the town. ‘There are also shields of 
cassowary hide, but these are used only in dancing. (Page 306.) 
My friend Schulz once had the opportunity on the veranda of his house 
to be a spectator of a battle between Sissano and Waropu bitterly contested 
in his immediate vicinity. The warriors, protected with body armor and 
breast shield, stick a war amulet into the arm band and hang another on the 
decorated breast shield. Then with frightful yells the enemies clash. ‘The 
women grasp their wooden swords and the great shields and as soon as a man 
is put out of action by an arrow he is carried from the field on the shield. - 
The women do not directly participate in the fighting and employ their 
wooden swords only to protect themselves when an enemy comes too near 
them. ‘They pick up the arrows after they have been shot, keep up the 
supply of ammunition from the arrow reserve in the houses, and when a man 
is wounded cut the arrow out of the flesh with bamboo knives. In all these 
combats the yelling is always the most frightful thing, and as soon as a pair 
of wounds have been inflicted or one of the fighters falls the affair comes 
to an end. ‘The casualties would be far more severe if it were not that the 
fighters leap about with the agility of apes and offer no certain target. I took 
a cinematographic picture of one of these leaping archers and had great diffi- 
culty in keeping the instrument trained on the man hopping like an india- 
rubber ball. (Page 311.) ; 
In but one of the eight Sissano towns is pottery practised. The method 
is to take sausage-shaped rolls of clay, set them in layers, and smooth the 
outside and inside with the hand. ‘The Sissano women roll the clay sausages 
on a hard surface until they become quite smooth. (Page 324.) 
In the west of our colony, among the Sissano, flourishes an art of wood 
work which deals with large wooden shields, ladles, and taro stampers. While 
the handle of the stamper exhibits a male figure with extraordinarily large 
organs of generation, a specimen was collected in which its place was taken 
by a kangaroo. ‘Travelers who follow me in Sissano will not be likely to 
find any good old pieces of this sort, for my Sissano friends fairly exhausted 
the supply at the rate of a kitchen knife apiece. (Page 33.) 
The Sissano celebrate a clothing feast at which the girls of six to eight 
years receive from the givers of their names colored girdles of bark and skirts 
of bast. ‘The father of the family invites all the givers of names. Since the 
child has several names it has therefore several name-givers (kakak). ‘The 
latter adorn the girl with girdle and skirt, paint her in gay colors, and to the 
accompaniment of singing and dancing bring her before her parents, who 
have not neglected to bake a huge cake of coconut and sago, 5 centimeters 
thick, 3 to 4 meters broad, and 7 to 8 meters long. ‘The women clothe them- 
selves as men, put on the belly armor and breast shields, and blacken their 
faces. Suddenly they appear in this disguise and armed with lemons from 
the bush, with these they pelt the men, who reply in kind. It lasts but a few 
minutes in all, then they withdraw and lay aside the disguise. Meanwhile 
the decorated girls are brought in by the givers of the names, and on the 
father’s side begins the distribution of the cake and other articles of food. 
Every name-giver gets from four to five backloads of eatables. In like 
