These bands are made by both men and women, but are coloured by men
only. They are commonly unstained and undecorated; but some of them,
and especially those worn for visiting and at dances, are more or
less decorated. Some that I have noticed are stained in one colour
covering the whole garment; others in two colours arranged in alternate
transverse bands, sometimes with narrow spaces of unstained cloth
between; and again others have bands of one colour alternating with
bands of unstained cloth. Some are decorated with lines or groups
of lines of one colour, or alternating lines or groups of lines of
two colours, painted transversely across the cloth. Others, while
simply stained in one colour or stained or decorated in one of the
ways above described, have another simple terminal design near the
end of the garment.

The men's bands are usually small and narrow, as compared with those
worn by the Roro and Mekeo people; and the women's bands seemed to me
to be generally even narrower than those of the men, particularly in
front. Men's bands, which I have measured, were about 6 inches wide at
one end, narrowing down to about 3 inches at the other; and the widths
of women's bands were 4 or 5 inches or less at one end, narrowing
down to about 2 inches at the other. But the bands of both men and
women, especially those of the latter, often become so crumpled up and
creased with wear that the portion passing between the legs dwindles
down to about an inch or less in width. One is tempted to think, as
regards both men and women, that, from the point of view of covering,
the bands might be dispensed with altogether. This remark applies
still more strongly to the case of young boys and unmarried girls,
including among the latter big full-grown girls, who are in fact
fully developed women, whose bands can hardly be regarded as being
more than nominal, and who, especially the girls and young women,