HAIR-BOBBING NATIVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19215, 2 January 1926, Page 2 (Supplement)

HAIR-BOBBING NATIVES.

STRANGE RELIGIOUS RITE.

GIRLS BURIEI} TO THE NECK. THE USE OF RED-HOT EMBERS. Bobbing and shingling of women's hair is a new fashion in this country, but it has long been a social and religious custom in some of tho priraitivo tribes. This ceremony of hair-cutting was described by Mr. F. A Mitchell Hedges, the explorer, in a talk on his recent journeys with Lady Richmond Brown through littlo"known regions in the north of South America, broadcast in London recently. The ceremony takes place at the transitional stage from girlhood to womanhood, a closely cropped head signifying that tho girl has reached marriageable ago. On a day appointed by the witch-doc-tors, the chief, his headmen, and the entire population arrive. A priestess has the immediate supervision of the young girl, who is placed in a large hole dug in a corner cf a dwelling. The hole is then filled in to. the girl s shoulders. After a chant by the whole assemblage the priestess sprinkles the giri with water,

then, placing a half calabash over her head, burns off a small piece of hair with a red-hot ember, which is afterwards buried in the earth.

Again a chant breaks out, and another piece of hair is burnt off. The burying of the ember each time, and the throwing on of cold water, are intended to symbolise the trials and troubles the girl will have to encounter; i\nd\the chanting and singing the pleasures that lie before hzr. " I witnessed one of these ceremonies," said Mr. Hedges, " The girl was buried for over six hours, and when she was released from her cramped position she was unable to stand, and had to be carried to a hammock."

In some tribes a number of marriageable girls stand in a row, then dart off into the jungle. The youths give chase a few minutes later, and by tribal law each girl is the wife of her captor. In one utterly degenerate tribe it was the girl who chose the youth. He was simply seized, carried to her home, and, after certain rite; had been performed, they were man and. wife. Thenceforth, for the rest of his life he had no will of his own, and did nothing until first ordered by the woman. Many tribes belicivo that the spirit of those who die makes its way at night to a river, where a dugout is waiting for it, in which another spirit is seated. It is conveyed to a place where the river branches out into a number of streams, and there a Great Spirit stands, and indicates which waterway it must take. Finally, the spirit arrives at a celestial village, its Valhalla, where forever afterwards it does nothing but eat and drink in a state of perfect happiness.