nt are not associated with feelings of modesty.
Von den Steinen reports that the women of Brazil wore a small,
delicately made and ornamented covering or _uluri_, which evidently
had an attractive as well as protective value; but the women showed no
embarrassment, but rather astonishment, when he asked them to remove
them and give them to him. When they understood that he really wanted
them, they removed them and gave them to him with a laugh.[252] This
is a case, in fact, of the beginning of clothing without a beginning
of modesty. But while we find cases of modesty without clothing and of
clothing without modesty the two are usually found together, because
clothing and ornament are the most effective means of drawing the
attention to the person, sometimes by concealing it and sometimes by
emphasizing it.

The original covering of the body was in the nature of ornament rather
than clothing. The waist, the neck, the wrists, and the ankles are
smaller than the portion of the body immediately below them, and are
from this anatomical accident a suitable place to tie ornaments, and
the ornamentation of the body results incidently in giving some degree
of covering to the body. The most suggestive use of clothing is the
use of just a sufficient amount to call attention to the person,
without completely concealing it. I need not refer to the fact that
in modern society this is accomplished by, or perhaps we should better
say transpires in connection with, diaphanous fabrics and decollete
dresses; and the same effect was doubtless accomplished by a typical
early form of female dress, of which I will give one instance in
Australia and one in America:

Among the Arunta and Luricha the women normally wear nothing,
but amongst tribes farther north, especially the Kaitish and
Warramunga, a small apron is made and worn, and this sometimes
finds its way south into the Arunta. Close-set strands of
fur-string hang vertically from a string waist-girdle. Each
strand is about eight or ten inches in length, and the breadth
of the apron may reach the same size, though it is often not
more than six inches wide.[253]

Mr. Powers says:

A fashionable young Wittun woman wears a girdle of deer skin,
the lower edge of which is slit into a long fringe, with the
polished pine-nut at the end of each strand, while the upper
border and other portions are studded with brilliant bits of
shell.[254