[34] Dr. Stapf, to whom I showed one of the armlets, No. 4, the materials of which are said to be the same as those used for this belt, said that the split cane-like material is a strip from the periphery of the petiole or stem of a palm, and that the other material is sclerenchyma fibre from the petiole or rhizome of a fern, and not that of a creeping plant.  I may say that I felt a doubt at the time as to the complete accuracy of the information given to me concerning the vegetable materials used for the manufacture of various articles, and there may well be errors as to these.

[35] Dr. Stapf, to whom I showed one of these belts, says that it is made of the separated woody strands from the stem of a climbing plant (possibly one of the Cucurbitaceae or Aristolochiaceae).

[36] Dr. Stapf, having inspected one of the belts, thinks this material is composed of split strips of sclerenchyma fibre from the petiole or rhizome of a fern, and not that of a creeping plant.

[37] Dr. Stapf, to whom I showed a written description which I had made of the plant, and who has also examined the belt, is of opinion that it belongs to the Diplocaulobium section of Dendrobium.

[38] I have examined at the British Museum a belt made by the dwarf mountain people found by the recent expedition organised by the British Ornithologists’ Union.  This belt is made in hank-like form, remarkably similar to that of my Mafulu belt No. 7, though in other respects it differs from the latter, and it is much smaller.  The only other thing of similar hank-like form which I have been able to find at the Museum is a small belt or head ornament (it is said to be the latter) made by Sakai people of the Malay Peninsula.

[39] Chalmers describes a young woman in the foot hills behind Port Moresby who “had a net over her shoulders and covering her breasts as a token of mourning” (Work and Adventures in New Guinea p. 26).  Compare also the Koita custom referred to by Dr. Seligmann (Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 164) for a widow to wear two netted vests.  The same custom is found at Hula.

[40] See reference to this question in the Annual Report for June, 1906, p. 13.

[41] I shall from time to time have to refer to the croton, and in doing so I am applying to the plant in question the name commonly given to it; but Dr. Stapf tells me that the plant so commonly called is really a codioeum.

[42] The Rev. Mr. Dauncey, of the L.M.S. station at Delena (a Roro village on the coast) told me that in his village it is a common thing for a native to pick up a small white snake about 12 inches long, and pass it through the hole in his nose; and that the Pokau people sometimes pass the tip of the tail of a larger black snake into these holes, the intention of both practices being to keep the hole open.  In neither of these cases is the practice a part of an original ceremony connected with nose-piercing, such as that of Mafulu; but it may well be that all the practices have superstitious origins.