An amazing sight greets our eyes. Lying at full length upon the ground is a young woman of perhaps eighteen years, undergoing what must be the most exquisite torture. Ah, what woman will not endure to be in fashion! At work upon her quivering body is an ancient crone, who with a sharpened piece of shell is cutting deep cicatrices in the flesh of the abdomen. The girl undergoing the operation is bearing with stoic courage the pain it must cost her, though her face twists and her muscles contract in a spasmodic tremor each time the old woman gashes her. The artist is cutting a scar pattern, which is the highest type of personal adornment these people know. The cuts are made diagonally underneath the skin and to a depth of a full quarter of an inch, so that as each is made there is a flap of skin turned up which varies from a thin edge to a thickness equal to the full depth of the cut.
The poor girl looks as if she regrets having asked that the thing be done, but, having started, is afraid of ridicule unless she goes through with it. The others gaze upon her with varying expressions. Some of the very young girls are palpably envious, while those whose bodies are similarly adorned are commiserating in demeanor; they know the pain the girl is suffering. The men look on with indifference, though they offer suggestions now and then as to how to enhance the beauty of the design. As each cut is made, a handful of dirt is scooped up from the ground and rubbed well into the wound, care being taken to fill the cut to its fullest depth.
Eight cuts have been made when the girl decides that she can stand no more at the present and the old woman desists after carefully patting the edges of the wounds and applying broad, fresh green leaves to them as a dressing. These are held in place by thongs of kangaroo hide bound around the body. The purpose of the dirt rubbed into the wounds is to make them fester and thereby raise the great wales that are so admired by the Kia Kias.
As the girl rises stiffly to her feet, the men present look at us with approbative grins and nod their satisfaction. The decoration of this particular girl promises well, for the old woman who has been doing the work is acknowledged to be an artist at it, and one of the girls whose scars have long since healed displays those upon her body, calling to our attention proofs of the fine technique. She obligingly poses for our cameras and in return for her kindness we present her with an extra allowance of tobacco.
They are very proud of the scar-patterns
The weals caused by the infection of the cuts sometimes stand out nearly an inch from the surrounding flesh
CHAPTER X
Our Consolation Prize
In our land the advent of a new member of the household is usually the occasion of much todo. There are many whispered conferences and grave speculations as to the advisability of this or that, and in many cases Mother is summoned as mistress of ceremonies. Wife’s sister also may attend and shuffle you unceremoniously out of the way of the trained nurse that bustles by, redolent of some carbolic derivative, and utterly unconscious of your existence. You who thought that you were in some remote way interested, and at least partly responsible for the commotion, are thrown temporarily into the discard and sometimes permanently so.