The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1888-09-20
THE HAIR OF SAvA0ES.
How the Asiatics and South Sea Islander
Keep 1t within Sounds.

Keep 1t within bounds.
The Asiatics have always been fam.
Gus for decorating their heads. The
Mohammedans OF old shaved theil
heads, except a single knot Of hair at
the exact top of the head, which was
left for a practical purpose. the Mo-
hammedan doctrine being that at the
resurrection of the dead the angel
Gabriel was specially detailed to attend
to the Mohammedans, and he raised
them by the top-knot. Accordingly the
top-knot was left full and strong in or,
der that the hold might not break, a
hole being left N the top Of the coffin in
order to facilitate the angels work.
The Chinese method Of hair dressing is
too well known to need description,
while in India the styles are both num-
erous and diversified, many of the
tribes OF the Punjab being distinguished
from each other by their methods OF
dressing their hair.
According to Lubbock, Darwin and
other authorities, the head dressing OF
the South Sea Islanders is ornate in the
last degree, while not infrequently their
styles of dressing their hair are SO in
geniously ~grotesque as to create the i'm
preston that the arrangement was
solely for ths purpose OF creating laugh
ter. Sometimes most of the hair on the
head is clipped away, leaving a number
of short. round tufts, as though the
scalp were planted with short paint
brushes. Occasionally the hair is cut
away from the forehead and temples,
leaving it at the top and back OF the
head; sometimes the back OF the head
is shaved, leaving the hair on the top
and sides; but generally the entire
growth of hair is left upon the head,
and as the capillary adornments of the
New Zealanders are very long and
bushy, the couture Of a chief generally
assumes enormous proportions. One
traveller mentions the fact Of seeing a
chief In New Zealand whose head dt rss
was over three feet in diameter and ar
ranged in long cones, the surface of the
scalp being divided into a great nun.
Der OF small circles, and the hair grow
Ing in each twisted up and so curled as
to form inverted cones, the point being
toward the scalp.
But, not content with these extraordi.
nary appendages, the South Sea Island.
ers have a practice Of dyeing their hair
and in the most extraordinary colors.
The natural color of their hair is a jetty
black, but they have a number of pig
ments, the use of which is well known
to them, by which they color their
locks red, green, blue, yellow and
white, and every variety Of color may
be seen in the course of a days walk.
But the New Zealand dandy is frequent
ly not satisfied with having his hair one
color, and so will die it in several, MAX
ing bands Or stripes across his Uranium.
A recent traveller records having cen a
New Zealander with an enormous shock
of bushy hair. In front the hair was
left its natural color. Next, from ear
across the top of the head to the other,
came a strip Of white hair, then a band
of red, then a streak of green, then a
blue stripe, and this parti-colored saw
age, who resembled nothing so much as
an extraordinary habited clown in the
circus, was not only the admiration OF
himself, but of the entire village in
which he lived, so that in New Zealand,
as we'll as in more civilized countries,
the adage: variety is the spice @!
life" is perfectly true