e petiole
or rhizome of a fern, and not that of a creeping plant.

[37] Dr. Stapf, to whom I showed a written description which I had
made of the plant, and who has also examined the belt, is of opinion
that it belongs to the Diplocaulobium section of Dendrobium.

[38] I have examined at the British Museum a belt made by the dwarf
mountain people found by the recent expedition organised by the
British Ornithologists' Union. This belt is made in hank-like form,
remarkably similar to that of my Mafulu belt No. 7, though in other
respects it differs from the latter, and it is much smaller. The only
other thing of similar hank-like form which I have been able to find
at the Museum is a small belt or head ornament (it is said to be the
latter) made by Sakai people of the Malay Peninsula.

[39] Chalmers describes a young woman in the foot hills behind
Port Moresby who "had a net over her shoulders and covering her
breasts as a token of mourning" (_Work and Adventures in New Guinea_
p. 26). Compare also the Koita custom referred to by Dr. Seligmann
(_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 164) for a widow to wear
two netted vests. The same custom is found at Hula.

[40] See reference to this question in the _Annual Report_ for June,
1906, p. 13.

[41] I shall from time to time have to refer to the croton, and in
doing so I am applying to the plant in question the name commonly
given to it; but Dr. Stapf tells me that the plant so commonly called
is really a codioeum.

[42] The Rev. Mr. Dauncey, of the L.M.S. station at Delena (a Roro
village on the coast) told me that in his village it is a common thing
for a native to pick up a small white snake about 12 inches long,
and pass it through the hole in his nose; and that the Pokau people
sometimes pass the tip of the tail of a larger black snake into these
holes, the intention of both practices being to keep the hole open. In
neither of these cases is the practice a part of an original ceremony
connected with nose-piercing, such as that of Mafulu; but it may well
be that all the practices have superstitious origins.

[43] There is apparently no corresponding ceremony among the Koita
natives (Seligmann, _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 72), nor
among the Roro people (_Id_., p. 256), and I do not believe there is
any such in Mekeo.

[44] I do not think these pigtails are used as ornaments by the Roro
and Mekeo people, though Dr. Seligmann says that a Koita bridegro