THE SISSANO COMMUNITY. 15 
their relatives. The women had to do this with long staves, but the men took 
the purchase price. The skulls heaped up in the spirit houses were not for 
sale. Among the exhumed specimens were found the skulls of men as well 
as women, so that it is not here, as in Berlinhafen, the privilege of the men 
to be preserved in the spirit houses. (Page 165.) 
The long strands of hair which the old Sissano women wear hanging down 
a breast are a rare exception to the usual treatment of the hair. (Page 
190. 
In order to develop the wounds inflicted by burning so that they may 
become thick weals the people in Sissano, apparently in other places also, 
smear the fresh wounds with a mixture of lime and the leaf juices of a plant. 
This composition, which has a yellow color, is extraordinarily irritant. The 
smarting which the women must undergo while decorating their bodies with 
these moxa scars must be something frightful. (Page 192.) 
Perforation of the ale and septum of the nose are practised by the Sissano. 
(Page 194.) 
In the neighborhood of Huon Gulf and in Sissano black teeth are regarded 
as particularly fine. The coloring is done with black earth. The black 
pigment is wrapped in a small packet, this is laid upon the teeth, and the 
result is attained. In Sissano I collected a small container which had been 
made as a holder for the black tooth pigment. (Page 195.) 
In Sissano the penis bark wrapping is concealed beneath a sort of fiber 
petticoat or a piece of bast cloth.* (Page 197.) 
They build their houses on exceptionally high posts when the air is not 
wholesome and when they must always be on guard against attack. A plat- 
form 3 or 4 meters high is not without its difficulties to the attacker who 
would seek toclamber up. The primordial form of the Papuan house appears 
to be of the round type. At the present time this has practically vanished 
from the coastal regions of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, though I have seen some 
in Sissano. ‘The roof is supported by a center pole. But this style has 
become unusual among the Sissano. (Page 215.) 
A uniform house type is not found. This is noteworthy in the men houses 
of Sissano, where we have round houses, oval houses with a platform under 
the dwelling room, and finally houses without platform. The women houses 
exhibit like variety; we find one with a veranda open above, a porch roof 
without veranda, and the more common type with low-roofed verandas. 
For decoration of the men houses long strings of the lower jaws of pigs are 
hung between the posts. (Page 218.) 
Among the Sissano the wooden sword is the weapon of women, for there 
they take part in combat; in peace times they employ the sword in breaking 
up the soil. (Page 305.) 
The protection of the body is particularly well cared for by the Sissano. 
The warrior wears for the protection of his belly a cuirass of bark richly 
carved (opén). ‘This is rolled up into a spiral and therefore adjusts itself 
closely to the belly. Before the breast depends a beautiful small shield 
decorated with swine teeth and red and black wild seeds. Four particu- 
larly fine breast shields of this kind are in the ethnographic collection of the 
old castle in Heidenheim, Wiirttemberg. In addition there occurs here, 
though quite rarely, artistically woven body armor, of which I collected one 
specimen for the Berlin collection; they are manufactured in the district near 
*With this statement it is necessary to compare vopun in the vocabulary. Appar- 
ently the Sissano employ both customs, which elsewhere in the region are somewhat sharply 
distinctive of racial difference. 
