Note 237.2 — RITUAL AND BELIEF (continued 2)

For this reason many of the aborigines of British Guiana lay their trinkets aside and go entirely naked; and among the Jiraras or Ayricas the wife, brothers and sisters of the deceased paint themselves all over with the juice of a fruit that renders them as black as Negroes, while relatives less near paint only their feet, legs, arms and part of the face: they are not so deeply compromised.237.2 So on the Ivory Coast the Ngoulango or Pakhalla mourners put off their ornaments, put on the head a worn-out loin-cloth and wear brown clothing, marking different parts of the body with red earth. If anything more were necessary to exhibit their state of taboo, it would be the practice of widows when they went out of doors to carry a piece of “fetish” wood, endowed with the power of causing death to anyone who approached them and touched it.237.3 In Australia the relatives, especially the women, cover their heads with clay, or in some parts of West Australia with red mud.237.4 The Warramunga women in the Northern Territory cover themselves from head to foot with pipeclay.237.5 Among the Uriyas of India, whose women are particularly fond of gay colours, a widow wears a plain white borderless sari, or cloth, as the sign of her bereavement.238.1 The Man Cao Lan of Tonkin wear white garments not hemmed; and those of their women who have adopted the Annamite trousers recur to the native petticoat.238.2