ARTIST’S ORDEAL

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 46, 25 February 1936, Page 3

ARTIST’S ORDEAL

WORKED IN THE JUNGLE FIRES KEEP OFF TIGERS The English sculptress, Mrs R. M. Milward, has just returned from Hyderabad with 36 moulds of the heads of the mysterious people who have inhabited the jungle in its centre for thousands of years. She shaped some of the heads on the verandah of the comfortable bungalow provided for her by the Nizam,, but most of them were made in the depths of the jungle. hTere she worked surrounded by fires and guards beating drums to keep off the panthers and tigers. The, jungle tribes are fast dying out, and Mrs Milward wishes to secure a permanent record of the outstanding types. Besides sculpturing heads, she measured them all scientifically. The Todas of the Nilgiri Hills were the most picturesque of the people seen by the artist. “They looked like people out ot the Bible,” said Mrs Milward, “with their Fong faces and long black curled hair. They wore a toga thrown Roman-fashion over one shoulder. ’’

Another group, the Chenchus, had bridgeless noses. They were Polynesian, the theory being that they “walked” from Australia before the continents drifted apart. Their population to-day is 800. Modern Hair Style The people of all these tribes, men as well as women, dressed their hair elaborately, making it up once a month. “The Kota women do their hair in the modern style,” said Mrs Milward, “with a short fall of curls at the side and a long rolled curl at the neck from ear to ear.

“The Haran-Shikari or ‘jungle hunters’ have a curious arrangement of plaits twisted at the back into a tea-pot handle shape, while the wandering gipsy tribes all wear plaits over a sin high pillow on top of their heads.”

Owing to the heat and the drying wind Mrs Milward was obliged to invent an entirely new technique for her work. She could not wet the clay while moulding or it would crack. In the final stages she actually had to carve it. To prevent breakages on the long journey home she made moulds over the clay, and tied the two halves together, filling them tight with jungle grass. The noses, being inside, were therefore kept from breaking off. Mrs Milward expects shortly to show her Indian heads in London.