Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-09
SOUTH SEA BARRIERS.
How They Fill Their Customers Haif
With Lime and Slack 1t.
SAVAGE HEADS FAIRLY SlzzLE.
Then the Locks Are Done Up to Resemble
Spiral Steel Shavings.
SHAVED In SPOTS AND ODDLY DYED
AvAGE HEADS FAIRLY SlzzLE.
SHAVED In SPOTS AND ODDLY DYED
WRITTEN FOR THE DrsrArcH.I

Boards and mustaches are rare in the Pa
cihe Islands. There is but scanty growth of
hair upon the face, and though the struggling
hairs are rarely pulled out, they grow 30
slowly that shaving is not resorted to more
than three or four times year. The BARRIERS
chief occupation is in the dressing Of the
hair, and in this branch Of the business ha
finds enough to do and ample scope for the
exercise OF his ingenuity in ways that would
never occur to his civilized rival.
One custom holds good throughout the
island realm wherever hair is worn at all,
and that is the lime shampoon based upon
motives of comfort and convenience gener-
| ally the same as led to the whitewashing
of coops and roosts on hen ranch. These
things abound in the tropics, and must be
accepted as distinctive feature of the lie,
to be dealt with in the readiest fashion. A
long and irritated experience finds its best
solution in lime, and lime therefore is used
by all.
A HEAD SIZZLING HOT.
Having lime the savage combs all the
| kinks out of the three, Jour or even six
inches to which he allows his hair to grow,
Sits the fine lime in among the hair, selects
a comfortable place in which to lie, gets the
barber to sprinkle water on the lime and
shuts his eyes while admiriDg friends stand
about to watch him sizzle. The water
slakes the lime with much blowing of bub-
bles and the evolution of thick clouds Of
carbonic acid gas, the subject submits cheer
fully to turn his head into a mortar bed
until the heat becomes too much for him to
bear, when dash of water washes away the
steaming lime and the first step has been
taken toward dressing his hair.
Many are content to simply comb the hair
after the lime application is over and so
| leave it for month to come, yet even this
simple operation is a work of time and pa
tience, for a man would be disgraced who
should appear with the hair lying fat and
smooth upon the head. The comb consists
! of ten or dozen wooden skewers about four
inches long, rubbed down fine and smooth
and secured by cords and gum side by side
| at the end of a long and light piece Of
carved wood, which served as head orna-
ment With this comb the hair is carefully
raked out, SO that each hair will stand on
end, and together they will appear like .
light mop.
woMEN's HAIR THE SHORTER.
Between men and women the only dis
tinction observed is that the men often wear
tie hair six inches long all about the head,
tile women seldom more than two inches,
standing out even on all sides, while men
train the hair below the crown upward, SO
that it, too, will grow parallel with the
hair on the top of the head. This involves
much combing and much use Of bandages
before it will answer all the requirements OF
fashion and satisfy the wearer that he will
look sufficiently grim to his enemies when
they meet in battle.
Others prefer spiky ringlets which ars
either trained to stand erect otto fall away
from the crown in all directions. These
I 4 i. =
llmed and combed out stiff. Beginning with
the forehead the barber grasps not more
than ten or dozen hairs growing close To-
gether, wraps them tightly around single
spear of grass and covers the whole with q
layer of bread fruit gum. In the end the
| ornamented islander will present much the
appearance of a blushing porcupine. For
fully a week the hair must remain in its
curl grasses which are carefully bundled
in q cloth saturated with oil.
LIKE SPIRAL STEEL sHAv1NGs.
At last the barber decides that his work
will do him credit, wipes off from each visD
Of hair its abundance of gum, draws out the
core of grass and leaves the ringlet standing
erect and about as graceful as the fine spiral
shavings which one finds in machine shop
where they haYe been planning steel. The
man who elects to wearihis hair in a mop OF
ringlets must conduct himself with single
eye to preserving for fully a month the
simple beauty of his eoifure He NAV not
swim without first tying his hair in oiled
cloth, and the patteriag of the rain warns
him to bundle up his head. At night be
may not sleep with his head upon the soft
mats but must rest his neck upon a wooden
| pillow. The simplest form of these pillows
| is q joint of bamboo supported on crutches
at each end and three or four inches long.
The natural black color of the hair is set-
dom seen even in the children, and so almost
| universal is the practice OF lining the head
that the coloTs, ranging between straw and
brick red, which result from the use of the
lime, may also be taken to stand in place Of
the natural color. Some leave their hair Of
| the color to which 1t has been burned, but
i many others elect to die it either of a single
| body color, uniformly laid on or in bars or
blocks of gaudy hues. A fayorite device Is
| to color the hair in two contrasting hueR
along the line Of the middle, blue on one
side and red on the other, red and green OF
/ yellow and black.
| LIKE A PAINTED TARGET.
Others indulge in irregular patches Of
| dye. giving marbled effect, and on one isl
| and they have reached the artistic height
| of eoncentric rings of bright eolors, giving
to each head the appearance of an animated
| target for the skill of opposing arehers,
| Among such as shave the head of all but 8
portion of the hair there is a multitude Of
| fashions, and each consults his own taste or
the ripper judgment of his barber. The
varied results are striking IN the extreme
Some are seen whose hair is confined to the
front of the head, leaving all behind the
| crowns as smooth as a ball; and yet others
reverse the process, extend their foreheads
to the crown and carry all their locks be-
| hind. Heads bare on one side are as COM
mon as in Siberian convict train, and one
never gives such an oddity second glance
The warriors delight above all others, the
regular fighting clip, is a cleanly-shayen.
| head with crest about two inches wide ex-
tending from the forehead clear back TO the
nape of the neck and trimmed to such q,
| length as will best insure its standing erect.
The savage islander must know what be-
comes of every particle of hair which is
clipped from his head. He takes the bunch
home, burns it. mixes the ashes with water
and drinks it. He believes that if anyone
could get possession of lock Of his hair,
burn it and swallow the ashes that person
could draw all his strength away and no
would weaken and die just In proportion ss
the other waIed hearty. Therefore he takes
the dose himself.
WILLIAM CHURCHILL.