Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/490

 MORALS AND MANNERS

witches are very dangerous on water. In general the smell of ordure and decomposing matter is thought to be noxious tcr human health. The natives believe that a special substance emanates from the corpse of a dead person. This, though invisible to the ordinary eye, can be seen by sorcerers, to whom it appears somewhat like the cloud of smoke {hwaulo) which hangs over a village. This emanation, which is also called hwauloy is especially dangerous to the maternal kinsmen of the deceased, and because of it they must not approach the corpse, nor per- form any of the mortuary duties (see ch. vi, sec. 2).

A few words will suffice to recapitulate here what we already know (see ch. x, sec. 4) about the conventions, manners, and morals of dress. The various functions of attire in enhancing personal beauty, in marking social dis- tinctions, in expressing the character of the occasion on which they are worn do not concern us here, but a word must be added about dress in its relation to modesty. Modesty in the Trobriands requires only that the genitals and a small part of the adjacent areas should be covered, but the native has absolutely the same moral and psy- chological attitude towards any infringement of these demands as we have. It is bad, and shameful, and ludi- crous in a degrading sense not to conceal, carefully and properly, those parts of the human body which should be covered by dress. Moreover there is a certain co- quettish emphasis in the care and elegance with which women manipulate their fibre skirts whenever they fear that dress may fail in its duty, through wind or rapid movement.

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