Oriental Women

by Edward B. Pollard

The Australian women are fond of games and sports. Dr. Roth, the Northern Protector of Aborigines in Queensland, says that with a fair length of twine adult women will amuse themselves for hours at a time. The twine is used in the form of an endless string, known to Europeans as "cat's cradle" or "catch cradle." Hundreds of the most intricate and bewildering designs are made, in the formation of which the mouth, the knees, and the toes coöperate with the hand. Some of the figures are extremely complicated. Dr. Roth gives the plates of the finished patterns, which certainly are as fascinating as any work of savage hands.

Australian women are described as cheerful and light-hearted, but, on occasion, they fight with their digging sticks most furiously, giving and taking blows like men. The testimony of the best observers is to the effect that, in most tribes, women are not treated with excessive cruelty, which would be quickly fatal to the tribe in longevity, fecundity, and service. Women receive their share of the resources, be they abundant or meagre. What seems to be cruelty is only custom or, as one would say, fashion; and in Australia, even more so than in Paris, you had as well be out of the world as out of the fashion.

All her life, the Australian woman is in the most abject social state; her connection with the rites and ceremonies of her tribes is only as an assistant or attendant. She is charged with all the industrial occupations of food getting, and is not allowed to venture near the sacred places on in of death. She is bound hand and foot by custom.

No Australian woman is believed to die a natural death. All are killed by magic--it may be a personal enemy near at hand or by a great sorcerer far away. Their life, so remote from ours, is, however, less sensitive, and it would be untrue to say that they are a melancholy set, living in perpetual dread.

When an Australian woman dies, she is at once placed in a sitting posture, with the knees doubled up against the chin. The body thus prepared is deposited in a round hole at once or is placed on a platform, made of boughs, until some of the flesh disappears, after which the bones are put into a grave. Nothing whatever is deposited with her, and the earth is piled directly upon the body so as to form a low mound with a depression on the side toward the camp ground. As soon as the burial is over, her camp is burnt utterly and her group remove to another place. Those who stood in certain kinship to her may never mention her name again or go near her grave after the last act of quieting the spirit has been performed. This ceremony occurs about a year after the death of a woman, and consists of trampling on her grave. Her mother and the nearest clan kin paint themselves with kaolin and visit her grave, accompanied by certain of her tribal brothers. On the way, the actual mother throws herself on the ground and is only prevented from frightfully cutting herself by watchful attendants. At the grave, the blood flows copiously from self-inflicted wounds upon all the mourners. After this blood letting, charms are planted upon the grave mound, the blood stained pipe clay, with which the half dead mother has smeared herself, is rubbed off and the grave is smoothed over. All this is done cheerfully, as it is the custom of the country.

The widow (or widows) of a deceased man smears her hair, face, and breast with white pipe clay, and remains silent during a long time, perhaps a year, communicating by means of gesture language. She remains in camp, performing assiduously the ceremonies for the dead; indeed, should she venture forth on her old avocations, a younger brother of her husband, on meeting her, might run her through with his spear. When the time comes to have the ban of silence removed, she smears herself afresh with kaolin, prepares a large tray full of food, and accompanied by female friends walks to the dividing line of her camp. They are joined by the proper kindred of the deceased, who, after an elaborate ceremony, release her from her vows, and certify to her having done her whole widowly duties. At the ceremony of trampling on the grave of the dead man, in which certain women take part, and especially the widow, who scrapes the kaolin from her body, showing that her mourning is ended.

When a child dies, not only does the actual mia, or "mother," cut herself, but all the sisters of the latter perform a like ceremony. On the death of relatives, women gash themselves. The scars thus made have naught to do with the decorative cicatrices across the breast, before mentioned. They are specially proud of these self-inflicted wounds, since they are the permanent record of their faithfulness to their dead.

Let us turn our attention to the smallest women of the world. History, ethnology, and classic myth have united to make the Eastern pigmies the most interesting people in the world. Though they are a little people, and have been hard pressed by larger and stronger races, they have survived for centuries. They are to be found in Asia, Africa, and the islands of the sea. Africa was doubtless their aboriginal home; but this negrito type has spread eastward, probably in their canoes in the early days, till the islands of the South Seas have become their home.

The women among these little people are even smaller than the men. The Mincopies of the Andaman Islands are among the most interesting of the negritos. Because of their roving nature, they live in huts which are rather temporary in character. These are put up by the women, though when a sojourn in a given locality is to be of longer duration the men build huts that are more permanent. The boys and girls do not sleep in the same huts with the married people, but in huts specially constructed for them. The women often become quite expert in the manufacture of pottery by hand, the vessels having rounded bottoms, and being decorated with wavy lines, or lines made by a wooden style.

Both boys and girls in the first few years of life are left entirely nude. At about six years the little girl has placed upon her an apron of leaves. This is her sole garment. Later in life, the womanly instinct for ornament shows itself however, so that necklaces and girdles are added. There is a certain kind of girdle, made from the pandanus leaves, which is the peculiar possession of the married women. The women, as well as the men, tattoo their entire bodies. This art of tattooing is practised almost entirely by the women. They use a piece of quartz or glass, making horizontal and vertical incisions in alternating series. There was probably some religious significance originally in this practice, since the men begin the process by making incisions with an arrow used in hunting the wild pig, and while the wounds are still fresh the man must refrain from using the flesh of this animal. The bodies of the women are usually quite shapely, though their faces are not beautiful. With the women as well as the men, the body is of nearly uniform width, there being scarcely any enlargement at the hips. Since the race is comparatively pure, marrying among themselves, the type is very uniform; and since, as Quatrefages says, the occupations of men and women vary little, the difference in the development of female as contrasted with masculine characteristics is exceedingly small.