[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

PENTECOSTE 2 3 7

Yet in spite of the close relations with Ambrym,
the art of! sculpture, so highly developed in the other
island, is entirely lacking in the south of Pentecoste.

In the north we find a dress similar to that of
Aoba: the men do not wear the nambas, while the
women have a small mat around the waist. The art
of braiding is brought to great perfection here, and
the mats from Pentecoste are surpassed only by those
from Maevo. The material is pandanus, whose leaves
are split into narrow strips, bleached and then braided.
Some of the mats are dyed with the root of a plant,
by boiling in a dyeing vat of bark. Besides the
small mats, chiefly used for the women’s dress, there
are larger ones which serve as money and represent
a great amount. They are as much as I metre
wide and 4 long, and are always dyed. The manu—
facture of these mats is very laborious, and only
high-caste men with many wives can afford to have
them made. The patterns for dyeing are cut out of
banana-sheath, which is then tied tightly on the mat,
and the whole rolled round a thick stick. The dyeing
takes almost an entire day. These mats are used,
for example, to buy the valuable tusked pigs.

The only form of wood-carving in this region are
clubs, and those made here are the most elegant of
the whole group, and so much in demand in all the
islands that they are quite largely exported. At
present they are mostly used as ceremonial clubs at
dances. All those of modern make are inferior to
the old ones in regard to hardness, elegance of shape,
polish and strength. Here, in Pentecoste, I found