Note 13 — GENERAL

Baldness and grey hair are both uncommon and disliked, and old men sometimes hide their scanty locks under a wig of black goat’s hair on a bamboo frame. All children have the lobe of the ear pierced at the conclusion of the birth “genna.” At the first Ramo13 “genna” he attends a boy has a hole pierced in the upper part of the helix. This is done with a pointed piece of bamboo, and no special ceremonies are attached to the operation. Among the Southern Lhotas, and occasionally among the Northern, another hole is pierced in the middle of the concha at the next Ramo. The holes in the helix and concha are for the cotton wool with which the ear is adorned and often become much distended in the case of elderly men.