SHOCKING NAKEDNESS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 124, 21 November 1925, Page 16

SHOCKING NAKEDNESS

MISSION ARIES AND THE CLOTHES DECREE... : In the past when missionaries set out for tropical lands to convert savages they thought a liberal supply of canvas trousers, . calico petticoats, and other clothing as .essentially a- part of the equipment, as ■Bibles, .Prayer books, and tracts,, says the'"Sail Francisco Examiner/ , To make the savages cover up the shocking nakedness of their bodies —this was thought to be the first step towards winning-them away from the eating of human flesh, the worship of idols, and other wicked habits. •:' Of. course, the traders encouraged the idea-that the savages should stop going about.clad only in a few daubs of paint or.'Strings of'beads, for there Were fortunes' to be-'made in clothing all these millions of black, red, brown, and yellow bodies, So it happened that as' the missionaries 'and traders made their way into one savage land after another the natives usually began wearing clothes before learning to say their prayers, or do any of the other things which contact with civilisation teaches-people to do. " l '''But^now'the missionaries and others who 'have'the welfare of the savages at heart are beginning to realise that to make them-wear, much of any clothing is a-,,.cruel,,mistake., As science has found out, they begin to lose vitality as soon as they start covering up their bodies, and : become.an, easy prey to smallpox, ■ tuberculosis, and other diseases. For a people whose bodies for centuries have baked uncovered, in the iropical heat in the fullest of'th_e .ultra-violet rays the donning of eyiSnytheiflimiifet garments is a virtual'death warrant: Scientist* declare tfist the rapidjty .with; which niany tribei in»>Airica-. ana the South Seas are'being-wiped out of existence is due more .to the clothing they have put on than, to any of the vices civilisation has brought to them. •. The .Papuans .of the South. Seas, for instance, seem to have known long ago t&e?i»#il;re»nltB -'ofcpnttitrjj:oh;;c]6thes;;lt is significant that the only person* who wore.clothes before the missionaries came 'were widows, and they-.Were icQ^elled t bj; .Uvgj^jid custom Jt©, do 'so/*ffhe: ijiett;iof pwtting ai»heavy grass-covering compfele■ly over.the head and,body of a widow was based on tho belief that she ought to die as soon as possible after her husband. This is" ia. way of thinking com-' •mon in many'parts of the world-'as for initancer in India, wherei widows uscd>Ho b« burned to d«iih-*ndC*t«' bccwionWly ptlFHlt'Mlr' ~f ™~**~~ ' "~■""'■*^