becoming more so.... Formerly, I imagine, there
was no restraint in speech; now there is a great deal of prudery;
for instance, the men were always much ashamed when I asked for
the name of the sexual parts of a woman." (A.C. Haddon,
"Ethnography of the Western Tribes of Torres Straits," _Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, 1890, p. 336.) After a
subsequent expedition to the same region, the author reiterates
his observations as to the "ridiculously prudish manner" of the
men, attributable to missionary influence during the past thirty
years, and notes that even the children are affected by it. "At
Mabuiag, some small children were paddling in the water, and a
boy of about ten years of age reprimanded a little girl of five
or six years because she held up her dress too high." (_Reports
of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_,
vol. v, p. 272.)

"Although the women of New Guinea," Vahness says, "are very
slightly clothed, they are by no means lacking in a
well-developed sense of decorum. If they notice, for instance,
that any one is paying special attention to their nakedness, they
become ashamed and turn round." When a woman had to climb the
fence to enter the wild-pig enclosure, she would never do it in
Vahness's presence. (_Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, Verhdlgen.,
1900, Heft 5, p. 415.)

In Australia "the feeling of decency is decidedly less prevalent
among males than females;" the clothed females retire out of
sight to bathe. (Curr, _Australian Race_.)

"Except for waist-bands, forehead-bands, necklets, and armlets,
and a conventional pubic tassel, shell, or, in the case of the
women, a small apron, the Central Australian native is naked. The
pubic tassel is a diminutive structure, about the size of a
five-shilling piece, made of a few short strands of fur-strings
flattened out into a fan-shape and attached to the pubic hair. As
the string, especially at _corrobboree_ times, is covered with
white kaolin or gypsum, it serves as a decoration rather than a
covering. Among the Arunta and Luritcha the women usually wear
nothing, but further north, a small apron is made and worn."
(Baldwin Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
Australia_, p. 572.)

Of the Central Australians Stirling says: "No sense of shame of
exposure was e