Their Strongly-Marked Features Are Very
Unfeminine, And Hard Work, Privations, And Very Early Marriages
Soon Destroy Whatever Of Beauty Or Grace They May For A Short
Time Possess.
Their toilet is very simple, but also, I am sorry
to say, very coarse, and disgusting.
It consists solely of a mat
of plaited strips of palm leaves, worn tight round the body, and
reaching from the hips to the knees. It seems not to be changed
till worn out, is seldom washed, and is generally very dirty.
This is the universal dress, except in a few cases where Malay
"sarongs" have come into use. Their frizzly hair is tied in a
bench at the back of the head. They delight in combing, or rather
forking it, using for that purpose a large wooden fork with four
diverging prongs, which answers the purpose of separating and
arranging the long tangled, frizzly mass of cranial vegetation
much better than any comb could do. The only ornaments of the
women are earrings and necklaces, which they arrange in various
tasteful ways. The ends of a necklace are often attached to the
earrings, and then looped on to the hair-knot behind. This has
really an elegant appearance, the beads hanging gracefully on
each side of the head, and by establishing a connexion with the
earrings give an appearance of utility to those barbarous
ornaments. We recommend this style to the consideration of those
of the fair sex who still bore holes in their ears and hang rings
thereto. Another style of necklace among these Papuan belles is
to wear two, each hanging on one side of the neck and under the
opposite arm, so as to cross each other. This has a very pretty
appearance, in part due to the contrast of the white beads or
kangaroo teeth of which they are composed with the dark glossy
skin. The earrings themselves are formed of a bar of copper or
silver, twisted so that the ends cross. The men, as usual among
savages, adorn themselves more than the women. They wear
necklaces, earrings, and finger rings, and delight in a band of
plaited grass tight round the arm just below the shoulder, to
which they attach a bunch of hair or bright coloured feathers by
way of ornament. The teeth of small animals, either alone, or
alternately with black or white beads, form their necklaces, and
sometimes bracelets also. For these latter, however, they prefer
brass wire, or the black, horny, wing-spines of the cassowary,
which they consider a charm. Anklets of brass or shell, and tight
plaited garters below the knee, complete their ordinary
decorations.
Some natives of Kobror from further south, and who are reckoned
the worst and least civilized of the Aru tribes, came one day to
visit us. They have a rather more than usually savage appearance,
owing to the greater amount of ornaments they use - the most
conspicuous being a large horseshoe-shaped comb which they wear
over the forehead, the ends resting on the temples.
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