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Robert W. Williamson - The Mafulu

R >> Robert W. Williamson >> The Mafulu




The nose-piercing is generally done at one of the big feasts; and,
as these are rare in any one village, you usually find in the villages
many fully-grown people whose noses have not been pierced; though as
to this I may say that nose-piercing is more generally indulged in by
chiefs and important people and their families than by the village rank
and file. It commonly happens, however, that a good many people have
to be done when the occasion arises. Each person to be operated upon
has to provide a domestic pig for the big feast. I have been unable
to discover the origin and meaning of the nose-piercing ceremony. [43]

Ear-piercing is done to both men and women, generally when quite young,
say at seven or twelve years of age. Both the lower and the upper lobes
are pierced, sometimes only one or the other, and sometimes both;
but the lower lobe is the one more commonly pierced. They can do it
themselves, or can get someone else to do it. There is no ceremony. The
piercing is done with the thorn of a tree, and the hole is afterwards
gradually widened by the insertion of small pieces of wood. They never
make large holes, or enlarge them greatly afterwards, as the holes are
only used for the hanging of pendants, and not for the insertion of
discs. After the piercing the patient must, until the wound is healed,
abstain from all food except sweet potato; but there is no restriction
as to the way in which this food is to be cooked, or the person who
is to cook it. There is as regards ear-piercing no difference between
the case of chiefs' children and those of other people.

Body-staining is usual with both men and women, who do it for
themselves, or get others to help them. There is no ceremony
in connection with it. The colours generally adopted are red,
greyish-yellow and black. The red stain is procured from an earth,
which is obtained from the low countries; but they themselves also
have an earth which is used, and produces a more bronzy red. The
yellow stain is also got from an earth. All these coloured earths
are worked into a paste with water, or with animal fat, if they can
get it. I think they also get a red stain from the fruit of a species
of Pandanus; but I am not quite clear as to this. The black stain is
obtained from crushed vegetable ashes mixed with fat or water. The
staining of the face is usually of a simple character. It may cover
the whole face all in one colour or in different colours, and often
one side of the face is stained one colour, and the other side another
colour. They also make stripes and spots or either of them of any
colour or colours on any part of the face. The red colour (I think
especially that obtained from the Pandanus fruit) is also often applied
in staining the whole body, this being especially done for dances and
visiting; though a young dandy will often do it at other times. The
black is the symbol of mourning, and will be referred to hereafter.

Hairdressing may be conveniently dealt with here. The Mafulu
hairdressing is quite simple and rough, very different from the
big, spreading, elaborately prepared and carefully combed mops of
Mekeo. This is a factor which a traveller in this part of New Guinea
may well bear in mind in connection with his impedimenta, as he has
no difficulty in getting the Kuni and Mafulu people to carry packages
on their heads, which the Mekeo folk are unwilling to do.

The modes in which the men dress their hair, so far as I was able to
notice, may be roughly divided into the following categories:--(_a_)
A simple crop of hair either cut quite close or allowed to grow fairly
long, or anything between these two, but not dressed in any way,
and probably uncombed, unkempt and untidy. This is the commonest
form. (_b_) The same as (_a_), but with a band round the hair,
separating the upper part of it from the lower, and giving the former
a somewhat chignon-like appearance, (_c_) The hair done up all over
the head in three-stranded plaits a few inches long, and about an
eighth of an inch thick, having the appearance of short thick pieces
of string, (_d_) The top of the head undressed, but the sides, and
sometimes the back, of the head done up in plaits like (_c_). (_e_)
A manufactured long shaped fringe of hair, human, but not the hair
of the wearer (Plate 20, Fig. 3), is often worn over the forehead,
just under the wearer's own hair, so as to form, as it were, a part
of it, pieces of string being attached to the ends of the fringe
and passed round the back of the head, where they are tied. These
fringes are made by tying a series of little bunches of hair close
to one another along the double string, which forms the base of the
fringe. Specimens examined by me were about 12 inches long and 1 1/4
inches wide (this width being the length of the bunches of hair),
and contained about twenty bunches. It is usual to have two or three
of these strings of bunches of hair tied together at the ends, thus
making one broad fringe. These fringes are often worn in connection
with styles (_c_) and (_d_) of hairdressing; but I never noticed them
in association with (_a_) and (_b_).

I was told that men who have become bald sometimes wear complete
artificial wigs, though I never saw an example of this.

The hairdressing of the women seemed to be similar to that of the men,
except that I never saw the chignon-producing band, that they do not
wear fringes, and that the entire or partial plaiting of the hair is
more frequently adopted by them than it is by the men. I do not know
whether the women ever indulge in entire wigs.

Method (_a_) is seen in many of the plates. Method (_b_) is
illustrated, though not very well, in Plate 9 (the fourth and
fifth man from the left) and in Plate 21 (the young man to the
left, behind). Method (_c_) is adopted by four of the women in the
frontispiece, by some of the women in Plate 16, by the woman in Plate
17, and by the little girl in Plates 22 and 23. Method (_d_) is well
illustrated by the second woman from the right in the frontispiece.

The cutting of the hair of both men and women is effected with sharp
pieces of stone of the sort used for making adze blades, or with
sharp pieces of bamboo or shell.

Infant deformation is not practised in any form by the Mafulu people;
nor do they circumcise their children.


Ornaments.

The string-like plaits in which men and women arrange their
hair, and especially those of the women, are often decorated with
ornaments. Small cowrie and other shells, or native or European beads,
or both, are strung by women on to these plaits, sometimes in a line
along all or the greater part of the length of the plait, sometimes
as a pendant at the end of it, and sometimes in both ways; and any
other small ornamental object may be added. Dogs' teeth are also
used by both men and women in the same way; but these are, I think,
more commonly strung in line along the plaits, rather than suspended
at the ends of them. Both men and women wear suspended at the ends
of these plaits wild betel-nut fruit, looking like elongated acorns;
and men, but not women, wear in the same way small pieces of cane, an
inch or two long, into which the ends of the plaits are inserted. All
these forms of decoration may be found associated together. They are
in the case of men usually confined to the plaits at the sides, being
also often attached to the side ends of the artificial fringes; but
they are sometimes used for the back of the head also. The women often
wear them also at the top of the head, and in wearing them at the sides
sometimes have them hanging in long strings reaching to the shoulders.

Plate 24 (Figs. 1, 2, 5, and 6) and Plate 25 (Figs. 2 and 4) are
ornamented plaits cut off the heads of women. The ornaments shown
include beads, shells, discs made out of shells, dogs' teeth and
betel-nut fruit. Plate 24 (Figs. 3 and 4) are ornamented plaits cut
off the heads of men, one of them having a cane pendant, and the
other a pendant of betel-nut.

The appearance of these things, as worn, is seen in Plates 16, 26,
27, 28 and 29 (the habit of wearing a single dog-tooth at each side
of the head, as shown by 27, being a common one, and 28 showing
the equally common habit of wearing a couple of betel-nuts at each
side). Their appearance, when worn in abundance for a festal dance,
is excellently shown in the frontispiece and in Plate 17; and the
little girl in Plates 22 and 23, though too young to be a dancer,
is decorated for an occasion.

Pigs' tails are a common head decoration for women, and are also worn,
though not so frequently, by men. These tails are covered with the
natural hair of the tail, and are brown-coloured. They are suspended
by strings passing round the crown of the head or from the plaits at
the sides of the head. They are generally only about 6 inches long;
but sometimes the ornaments into which they are made are much longer,
and I have seen them worn by women hanging down as far as the level
of the breast. These pigtails are sometimes worn hanging in clusters
of several tails. They are also often, in the case of women, decorated
with shells, beads, dogs' teeth, etc., which are attached like tassels
to their upper ends. [44]

Plate 30, Fig. 3 shows a pigtail ornament for hanging over the head,
with the tails suspended on both sides and strings of beads and dogs'
teeth hanging from the upper ends of the tails. The ornament is worn
by the middle man in Plate 9 and by the little girl figured in Plates
22 and 23, and it is seen more extensively worn by women decorated
for dancing in the frontispiece and in Plate 17, and by the girl in
Plate 71.

A peculiar and less usual sort of head ornament (Plate 30, Fig. 4),
worn by both men and women, is a cluster of about a dozen or less of
bark cloth strings, about 1 1/2 feet long, fastened together at the
top, and there suspended by a string tied round the top of the head,
so as to hang down like the lashes of a several-thonged whip over the
back. The individual strings of the cluster are quite thin, but they
are decorated with the yellow and brown straw-like material above
referred to in connection with abdominal belt No. 6 (being prepared
from the same plant, apparently Dendrobium, and in the same way),
the material being twisted in a close spiral round the strings, and
making them look, when seen from a short distance off, like strings
of very small yellow and brown beads, irregularly arranged in varying
lengths of the two colours, shading off gradually from one to the
other. Even when so bound round, these strings are only about 1/16
to 1/8 of an inch thick.

The Mafulu comb (Plate 30, Fig. 2) differs in construction from
the wooden combs, all made in one piece, which are commonly used in
Mekeo. It is made of four, five, or six thin pieces of wood, which are
left blunt at one end, but are sharpened to points at the other. These
are bound together with straw-like work, sometimes beautifully done,
the binding being nearly always near to the blunt ends, though it
is sometimes almost in the middle. [45] The combs so made are flat,
with the blunt ends converging and generally fastened together, and
the long sharp ends, which are the ends to be inserted into the hair,
spreading outwards. The bound-up blunt ends are in fact a point, or,
say, half an inch or less (occasionally more) across. The spread of
the sharp ends varies from 1 to 2 inches or more. The straw-like
binding may be light or dark brown, or partly one and partly the
other. Sometimes only the two outside prongs meet together at the blunt
end, and the inner prongs do not extend much, or at all, beyond the
upper edge of the straw-like work binding. The fastening together of
the blunt converging tips is done sometimes with native thread just
at the tips, and sometimes with a little straw work rather further
down; occasionally it is missing altogether. The comb figured is not
so converging at the blunt ends or so spreading at the sharp ends
as is usual, and its blunt ends are not bound together. These combs
are only worn by men; they are commonly worn in front, projecting
forwards over the forehead, as is done in Mekeo; but they are also
worn at the back of the head, projecting sideways to either right or
left. A feather (generally a white cockatoo feather), or sometimes two
feathers, are often inserted into the straw-like work of the comb,
so as to stand up vertically when the comb is worn, and there wave,
or rather wag, backwards and forwards in the wind. I could not learn
any significance in these feathers, such as applies to many of the
upright head feathers worn by the young men of Mekeo. The comb is
worn by several of the men figured in Plate 9, one of them wearing
it in front and the others having it standing out sideways at the back.

The almost universal type of earring (Plate 20, Fig. 1), varying
from 2 to 3 inches in circumference, is made out of the tail of the
cuscus. The ring is made by removing the hair from the animal's tail,
drying the tail, and fastening the pointed end into or on to the blunt
cut-off stump end, tying them firmly together. The ring is then bound
closely round with the yellow and brown material (Dendrobium) of belt
No. 6; but a space of 1 or 2 inches is generally left uncovered at the
part where the two ends of the tail are fastened together. The simplest
form is a single earring, which passes through the hole in the ear;
but I have seen two rings hanging to the ear; and frequently a second
ring is hung on to the first, and often a third to the second, and
sometimes a fourth to the third; or perhaps, instead of the fourth
ring, there may be two rings hanging to the second one. In fact,
there are varieties of ways in which the fancy of the wearer and the
number of rings he possesses will cause him to wear them. They are
worn by both men and women. [46] They may be seen in several plates,
but unfortunately are not very clear. The most distinct are, I think,
those worn by the second woman from the left in Plate 26 and the
woman on the left in Plate 28. The second woman from the left in the
frontispiece has two of them hanging from her right ear.

Pigs' tails, similar to those worn from the hair, are also worn by
both men and women, especially the latter, suspended from the ears;
and here again they vary much in length, and are often decorated with
tassel-like hanging ornaments of shells, beads, etc.

Forehead ornaments (Plate 30, Fig 5) are made by men and worn by them
at dances. This ornament is a band, very slightly curved, which is
worn across the forehead, just under and surrounding the basis of the
dancing feathers. It is generally about 16 inches long and between
4 and 5 inches broad in the middle, from which it narrows somewhat
towards the ends. Its manufacture consists of a ground basis of the
material of belt No. 5, into which are interplaited in geometric
patterns the two black and yellow and brown materials which are used
for belt No. 6. It is fixed on to the forehead by means of strings
attached to its two ends, and passing round, and tied at the back of,
the head.

Nose ornaments. These are straight pencil-shaped pieces of shell,
generally about 6 inches long, which are passed through the hole in
the septum of the nose. They are only worn at dances and on special
occasions; but the people from time to time insert bits of wood or
cane or bone or some other thing into the hole for the purpose of
keeping it open. There are temporary pegs in the noses of the fifth
man to the left in Plate 9 and the man in Plate 10. The nose ornament
is worn by the woman to the extreme right in the frontispiece.

Necklaces and straight pendants, suspended from the neck and
hanging over the chest, are common, though they are not usually
worn in anything approaching the profusion seen in Mekeo and on
the coast. These are made chiefly of shells of various sorts (cut
or whole), dogs' teeth and beads, as in Mekeo. The shells include
the cowries and the small closely packed overlapping cut shells so
generally used in Mekeo for necklaces, and the flat disc-like shell
sections, which are here, as in Mekeo, specially used for straight
hanging pendants; also those lovely large crescent-shaped discs of
pearl shell, which are well known to New Guinea travellers. The shells
are, of course, all obtained directly or indirectly from the coast;
in fact, these are some of the chief articles for which the mountain
people exchange their stone implements and special mountain feathers,
so the similarity in the ornaments is to be expected; but it is only
within a quite recent time that the pearl crescents have found their
way to Mafulu. I do not propose to describe at length the various
forms of shell ornament, as they are very similar to, and indeed I
think practically the same as, those of Mekeo. Some of the necklaces
are figured in Plates 31, 32 and 33, and they are worn by many of
the people figured in other plates, especially the frontispiece and
Plate 17. Straight pendant ornaments are seen in the frontispiece and
in Plates 6, 17, 26 and others. The crescent-shaped pearl ornaments
are seen in the frontispiece and in Plates 6, 7, 16, 28 and others,
a very large one being worn by the little girl in Plate 71.

There is, however, one shell necklace which is peculiar to the
mountains, and, I think, to Mafulu (I do not know whether the Kuni
people also wear it), where it is worn as an emblem of mourning
by persons who are relatives of the deceased, but who are not
sufficiently closely related to him to stain themselves with black
during the period of mourning. This necklace is made of white cowrie
shells varying in size from half an inch to an inch long, each of
which has its convex side ground away, so as to show on one side the
untouched mouth of the shell and on the other an open cavity. The
shells are strung, sometimes closely and sometimes loosely, on to a
double band of thin cord. Specimens of this type of necklace measured
by me varied in length from 36 inches (with 97 shells) to 20 inches
(with 38 shells). It is worn until the period of mourning is formally
terminated. The middle necklace in Plate 33 is a mourning shell
necklace, and it is seen on the neck of the woman to the right in
Plate 29.

Pigs' tail ornaments similar to those already described are also worn
suspended by neck-bands over the chest.

Armlets and wrist-bands are worn by both men and women, and more or
less by children, including quite young ones, at the higher end of
the upper arm and just above the wrist. They are made by men only,
and vary in width from half an inch to 5 or 6 inches, the wider ones
being generally worn on the upper arm. There are several common forms
of these: (1) The more usual form (Plate 34, Fig. 4) is made of the
thin and finely plaited stone-grey material described in abdominal
belt No. 5, and is made in the same way, subject to the difference
that the plaiting is more closely done. Measured specimens of this
armlet varied in width from 1 to 2 1/4 inches, and displayed different
varieties of diagonal twill stitch. (2) Another common form (Plate 34,
Fig. 3) is made of the coarser-plaited black and yellow and brown
materials described concerning No. 6 belt, and is made in the same
way. Specimens of this armlet varied in width from 1 to 5 inches. (3)
There is another form which in fineness of material and plait is
between Nos. 1 and 2. I was told that this is made out of another
creeping plant, and is left in its own natural unstained colour, which,
however, in this case is a dull brown red. (4) Another form (Plate
34, Fig. 2) is made of the coarse dull red-brown and stone-yellow
materials described with reference to belt No. 2, and is made in
the same way. A specimen of this armlet was 2 1/4 inches wide. (5)
Another form (Plate 34, Fig. 1) is in make something like No. 4, but
the two materials used are the stone-yellow material of belt No. 2
and the black material of belt No. 6, and the plaiting materials are
much finer in thickness than are those of armlet No. 4. Specimens
of this armlet varied in width from 3/4 to 1 1/4 inches. (6) The
beautiful large cut single-shell wrist ornament, commonly worn on
the coast and plains, whence the Mafulu people procure it. Armlets
will be seen worn by many of the people figured in the plates.

There is no practice of putting armlets on young folk, and retaining
them in after life, so as to tighten round and contract the arm.

Leg-bands (Plate 25, Fig. 1) and anklets are worn by both men and
women, and also by children, just below the knee and above the ankle.

There is a form of plaited leg-band somewhat similar in make to armlet
No. 5, and between half-an-inch and an inch in width, though the
colour of this leg-band is a dull brown. But the usual form of leg-band
and anklet is made by women only out of thread fibre by a process of
manufacture quite distinct from the stiff plait work adopted for some
of the belts and for the armlets. They make their thread out of fine
vegetable fibre as they proceed with the manufacture of the band,
rolling the individual fibres with their hands upon their thighs,
and then rolling these fibres into two-strand threads, and from time
to time in this way making more thread, which is worked into the open
ends of the then working thread as it is required--all this being
done in the usual native method.

I had an opportunity of watching a woman making a leg-band, and I think
the process is worth describing. She first made a thread 5 or 6 feet
long by the method above referred to, the thread being a two-strand
one, made out of small lengths about 5 or 6 inches long of the
original fibre, rolled together and added to from time to time until
the full length of 5 or 6 feet of thread had been made. The thread
was of the thickness of very coarse European thread or exceedingly
fine string. She next wound the thread into a triple loop of the size
of the proposed leg-band. This triple loop was to be the base upon
which she was to make the leg-band, of which it would form the first
line and upper edge. It was only about 11 inches in circumference, and
thus left two ends, one of which (I will call it "the working thread")
was a long one, and the other of which (I will call it "the inside
thread") was a short one. Both these threads hung down together from
the same point (which I will call "the starting point"). She then,
commencing at the starting point, worked the working thread round the
triple base by a series of interlacing loops in the form shown (very
greatly magnified) in Fig. 1; but the loops were drawn quite tight,
and not left loose, as, for the purpose of illustration, I have had to
make them in the figure. This process was carried round the base until
she had again reached the starting point, at which stage the base,
with its tightly drawn loop work all around it, was firm and strong,
and there were still the two ends of thread hanging from the starting
point. Here and at subsequent stages of the work she added to the
lengths of these two ends from time to time in the way above described
when they needed it, and the two ends of thread were therefore always
present. Then began the making of the second line. This was commenced
at the starting point, from which the two ends of thread hung,
and was effected by a series of loops made with the working thread
in the way already described, except that these loops, instead of
passing round the whole of the base line, passed through holes which
she bored with a thorn, as she went on, in the extreme bottom edge of
that line, and also that, in making this second line, she passed the
inside thread through each loop before she drew the latter tight; so
that the second line was itself composed of a single internal thread,
around which the loops were drawn. The second line was continued in
this way until she again reached the starting point (but, of course,
one line lower down), from which the two ends of thread hung down as
before. The third and following lines were made by a process identical
with that of the second one, the holes for each line being pricked
through the bottom of that above it. I did not see the completion of
the band, but I may say that the final line is similar to the second
and subsequent ones, and is not a triple-threaded line like the first
one. It was amazing to see this woman doing her work. She was an old
woman, but she did the whole of the work with her fingers, and she must
have had wonderful eyesight and steadiness of hand, as she made the
minute scarcely visible prick holes, and passed the end of her working
thread through them, with the utmost apparent ease and quickness.

The band thus produced is of very small, close, fine work, and is
quite soft, flexible and elastic, like European canvas, instead of
being stiff and hard, like the plaited belts and armlets. The band
is generally about an inch (more or less) in width. It is not dyed
or coloured in any way, but is often decorated with beads, which
are worked into the fabric in one or more horizontal lines, but as
a rule, I think, only at irregular intervals, and not in continuous
lines. These bands and anklets are seen in many of the plates. In
Plates 10, 11 and 12 the bead decorations are seen.

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