EIGHT WIVES APIECE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19032, 1 June 1925, Page 11

EIGHT WIVES APIECE.

POLYGAMY IN PAPUA. BELLES OF PURARI DELTA., REMARKABLE HAIRDRESSING. '' [from our own correspondent. J SYDNEY, May 31. Many books have hern written about the curious customs of the Papuans, but not many of them are so definitely informative liud authoritative as the report received by the Federal Government lately, and published by Mr. F. G. Williams, assistant Government anthropologist. The report deals with the natives of Purari Delta,; and it gives a remarkable lot o[. information about a remarkable people. Among other points of,interest regard* ing the social life of the natives, Mr. Williams found that polygamy is in general practice. In days not long gone bv, certain Purari chiefs are said—possibly with some heroic exaggeration—to have had at, least 80 wives apiece. At present the largest establishment .teems to bo eight, ihougli the number varies below that. It was a citizen possessing six wives who declared that the amity of a man's household depended on his tact. When Mr. Williams was at Ikinn there wi/ve 15 young bachelors, but not a single unmarried man of elderly age. It does not follow, however, that man necessarily has matters nil his own way in the idyllic Purari Delta. A woman who is dissatisfied with her lot iu her husband's house will readily desert him for another, or else return to her own family, probably to her brother's house. Moreover, women there are not, illused. They have no voice in public concerns, but they on joy a fair amount of personal freedom. it' is only occasionally, Mr. Williams tells us, that she in chastised by a hungry or otherwise beaten husband. One of the most remarkable points about the women and girls is that they either shave the head completely or loav® a series of patches and lines of hair, arranged in more or less fantastic fashion. Shell-discs may be fastened to the tufts of hair. Sometimes, but not commonly, a woman may allow her hair to grow" evenly to a length of perhaps lin. No reason' is given for this astonishing stylo of hair-dressing, though in some cases, according to Mr. Williams, it is not unattractive. Purari men do not indulge in fancy work iu their hair, but thoy wax fantastic on occasions,, through the medium, of beards—even a cluster of dogs' teeth may jinglo hi an old man's beard. Mv. Williams describes also the physical environment of the Purari natives, their daily life and food truest, their political and economic, conditions, jmd their religions and ceremonial life. It is ;i most thorough report..