JUNGLE ATTIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 8, 10 July 1934, Page 13

JUNGLE ATTIRE

WOMEN OF PAPUA

The copper-coloured woman of Papua: is . certainly, not renowned for . her; elegant and expensive wardrobe, but. there is artistry about it in its tropical setting, and df tho creation, of newfashions does not absorb a deal of her; time, she is nevertheless not backward: in producing neat little costumes suitable to the climate and to her own ideas of what fashionable attire should; be, states an Australian exchange. She does not have the fashionable; emporiums to ransack for tho latest1 materials, but she has the virgin: 3'uuglc; by her side. She has all the colours of tho rainbow to choose from—only requiring to be picked and crushed or boiled as may be necessary. She has tho' barks of trees, she has the grasses, and 6he has her hand-produced thread (cot-: ton or string) always by her. She produces skirts of gaily-coloured grasses,' hip to kueo length, fancy caps, which; she wears on special occasions; cloaks' of bark (worn by mountain -women); and she makes string bags, handbags,; and vanity cases with plaited grasses; in artistic colours and designs,, and all only at the cost of a little labour. '.' :

SKIRT OF SHREDDED GRASS. . The Port' Moresby ana JTastorii'. Division' women wear the- grass rairii. This is a skirt of''shredded grass. Some-; times it is plain bufi-coloured, sometimes it is reel, sometimes variegated.l and very often over all' wide strips of a white fibre are ranged to fall on tho: outer or show side, and sometimes a frill of this will decorate tho waistline. Of varying thicknesses, sometimes as many as eight or ten. of these grass1 skirts are worn at once, and they sway with the swing of the hips like a kilt.: And with her mop of frizzy black hair,

her tattooed and coloured face, her decorations of armshells and native and European beads, she presents a picture of barbaric beauty that takes a lot of beating.

In the Delta and Western Divisions of Papua on a holiday or gala day the dressing of the women is superb. They have coloured ramis by the score, white, bleached grass caps, streamers of gaily-coloured grasses from arms and shoulders, collars and necklets of beads, clogsteeth, and pearlshell crescents, and their arms are covered with arm shells.

' Their faces are ■ covered with the most intricate designs done in red, yellow, white, or black—and they get some wonderful designs, too—and their ankles are swathed in frills of rami

grass in all the colours that the jjuugle can produce.