[71] Oenocarpus distichus.
[72] Wallace, p. 351.
[73] According to Koch-Grünberg the Yahabana and other Kuretu-speaking tribes part the hair in the middle and plait it with bast. After bathing, the hair is dried, combed, and arranged with a bandage.
[74] Red was the favourite colour for a djibbeh. White ones were not much liked.
[75] This corresponds with the bead tanga described by Wallace, but the Uaupes’ apron is “only about six inches square,” and these girdles or garlands are two feet long or more (Wallace, p. 343).
[76] Value, I believe, about ninepence exchange or less.
[77] So uncommon is it that I was under the impression that it was entirely unknown until I examined the necklace in question very carefully after my return to England. Certainly I never saw any of these tribes preparing cotton or making use of it in any way except in its natural state to tip their blow-pipe arrows. String or yarn of any sort, except the fibre thread, I always found to be absolutely unobtainable anywhere throughout these districts.
[78] Possibly one of the Histeridae mentioned by Bates, i. 211.
[79] Pace Maw, p. 226.
[80] Belts of apparently similar minute plaiting are worn by the Mafula of British New Guinea. These natives also wear armlets and leglets of the same material, but not tightened to swell the muscles. The thread these are made of is manufactured from vegetable fibre in the identical manner employed by the Issa-Japura Indians (Williams, The Mafula of British New Guinea, pp. 32, 53, 54).