| caption: |
Chapter Three. Phases of Life |
| caption: |
tattooing of legs and knees of married woman |
| text: |
Several months after the wedding the young wife went to her husband's house to have her legs and knees tattooed with the pattern appropriate to married women. An elderly woman of chiefly status performed this painful operation with the assistance of several girls of the young wife's natal clan, one of whom stayed with the patient for the night to tend her tattoo wounds. Neither the husband nor any other young man was allowed to be present, but after sunset young girls of the husband's clan assembled for a small feast and spent most of the night singing and chanting. |
