me.  The women would never voluntarily expose their breasts to white men’s gaze; this applies to quite young girls, less so to old women.  Amongst themselves they are, of course, much less particular, but I believe they are becoming more so....  Formerly, I imagine, there was no restraint in speech; now there is a great deal of prudery; for instance, the men were always much ashamed when I asked for the name of the sexual parts of a woman.” (A.C.  Haddon, “Ethnography of the Western Tribes of Torres Straits,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1890, p. 336.) After a subsequent expedition to the same region, the author reiterates his observations as to the “ridiculously prudish manner” of the men, attributable to missionary influence during the past thirty years, and notes that even the children are affected by it.  “At Mabuiag, some small children were paddling in the water, and a boy of about ten years of age reprimanded a little girl of five or six years because she held up her dress too high.” (Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, vol. v, p. 272.)

“Although the women of New Guinea,” Vahness says, “are very slightly clothed, they are by no means lacking in a well-developed sense of decorum.  If they notice, for instance, that any one is paying special attention to their nakedness, they become ashamed and turn round.”  When a woman had to climb the fence to enter the wild-pig enclosure, she would never do it in Vahness’s presence. (Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie, Verhdlgen., 1900, Heft 5, p. 415.)

    In Australia “the feeling of decency is decidedly less prevalent
    among males than females;” the clothed females retire out of
    sight to bathe. (Curr, Australian Race.)

“Except for waist-bands, forehead-bands, necklets, and armlets, and a conventional pubic tassel, shell, or, in the case of the women, a small apron, the Central Australian native is naked.  The pubic tassel is a diminutive structure, about the size of a five-shilling piece, made of a few short strands of fur-strings flattened out into a fan-shape and attached to the pubic hair.  As the string, especially at corrobboree times, is covered with white kaolin or gypsum, it serves as a decoration rather than a covering.  Among the Arunta and Luritcha the women usually wear nothing, but further north, a small apron is made and worn.”  (Baldwin Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 572.)

Of the Central Australians Stirling says:  “No sense of shame of exposure was exhibited by the men on removal of the diminutive articles worn as conventional coverings; they were taken off coram populo, and bartered without hesitation.  On the other hand, some little persuasion was necessary to allow inspection of the effect of [urethral] sub-incision, assent being given only after dismissal to a distance of the women