The Mafulu - Mountain People of British New Guinea by Robert Wood Williamson
page 46 of 414 (11%)
page 46 of 414 (11%)
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and become a colour varying from rather bright yellow to brown. For
making the belt these two materials, looking rather like black and bright yellow straw, are plaited together in various geometrical patterns. The width of the belt is 2 inches, or a trifle more. It is tied at the ends with fibre string. (7) A rather special form of belt (Plate 15, Fig. 3) used mainly for visiting and dancing; made and worn by both men and women. The belt is made out of a hank of loose separate strands between 4 and 5 feet long, tied together with string or bark cloth at two opposite points, so as to form a belt of between 2 feet and 2 feet 6 inches in length. For better description I would liken it to a skein of wool, as it looks when held on the hands of one person for the purpose of being wound off into a ball by someone else, but which, instead of being wound off, is tied up at the two points where it passes round the hands of the holder, and is then pulled out into a straight line of double the original number of strands, and so forms a single many-stranded belt of 2 feet or more in length. It is fastened round the waist with a piece of bark cloth attached to one of the points where the hank has been tied up. [38] The number of strands is considerable. Belts examined by me and counted gave numbers varying from eighteen to thirty-five, and the number of strands of the belt round the body would be double that. Each strand is made of three parts plaited together, and is one-eighth of an inch or less in width. Various materials, including all the materials used for armlets (see below), are employed for making these belts, some for one and some for another. Sometimes a belt has its strands all plaited out of one material only, in which case the belt will be all of one colour. Sometimes its strands are plaited out of two |
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