| caption: |
watching life in Shiong; women's dress and physique |
| text: |
(201) As it was a genna day no one went to the fields. Only a few men could be seen in front of the houses but girls and women were carrying heavy loads of wood and were hurrying off to the village spring with carrying baskets full of tall bamboo containers. They are not burdened with clothing, only an apron as wide as a hand is wound around their hips and on the back it slips so far down to their thighs that their entire bottom line is visible. But all of these women are well built, strong legs support a body without any unnecessary deposits of fat. The hips are not very wide. The stomach muscles are tight and the breasts remarkably well shaped. In this respect in particular the average is so high that hardly any European group can measure up to it. In the case of older women the breasts slowly shrink and finally are completely flat. Dangling or overly developed breasts are a rare sight. (In notebook 4 p. 29 following, I took extensive notes about the dress of women and children which I do not want to repeat here.) |
