ure represent yellow stain. No
other staining in the apron.
42 6 3/4 Background of design unstained, but back fold end of
apron and fringe stained yellow.
43 6 3/4 No background staining in the apron. The smallness
of the amount of decoration and the substitution of
two tails for a fringe are, I think, unusual.

Dancing ribbons are made out of bark cloth by both men and women,
but are coloured by men only. These are worn by both men and women at
dances, the ribbons hanging round the body from the abdominal belt or a
cord, three or four or five of them being worn by one person, and one
of these commonly hanging in front. They are generally 2 or 3 inches
wide and about 4 feet long, but a portion of this length is required
for hitching the ribbon round the belt. I think their ornamentation
is confined to staining in transverse bands of alternating colour or
of one colour and unstained cloth. Plate 13, Fig. 4, illustrates the
colouring of two ribbons (each 2 inches wide), the alternation in one
case being red and yellow, and in the other red and unstained cloth;
and the men figured in Plate 70 are wearing ribbons, though they are
not very clearly shown in the plate.

The feather ornaments for the head, and especially those worn at
dances, and the feather ornaments worn on the back at dances present
such an enormous variety of colours and designs that it would be
impossible to describe them here without very greatly increasing the
length of the book. The ornaments are often very large, sometimes
containing eight or ten or even twelve rows of feathers, one behind
another. They can usually be distinguished from those made by the Mekeo
people by a general inferiority in design and make of the ornament as
a whole, the Mafulu people having less artistic skill in this respect
than the people of the lowlands. The ornaments include feathers of
parrots, cockatoos, hornbills, cassowaries, birds of paradise, bower
birds and some others. One never or rarely sees feathers of sea-birds,
or waterfowl, or Goura pigeons (which, I was told, are not found among
the mountains), as the Mafulu people in their trading with the people
of the plains take in exchange things which they cannot themselves
procure, rather than feathers, which are so plentiful with them.

The black cassowary feather is important in Mafulu as being the
special feather distinction of chiefs;