[250]
Bonwick says also:
I have repeatedly been amused at observing the Australian
natives prepare for their approach to the abode of
civilization by wrapping their blankets more decently around
them and putting on their ragged trousers or petticoats.[251]
There are numerous cases found among the lower races where the wearing
of clothing and ornament are not associated with feelings of modesty.
Von den Steinen reports that the women of Brazil wore a small,
delicately made and ornamented covering or _uluri_, which evidently
had an attractive as well as protective value; but the women showed no
embarrassment, but rather astonishment, when he asked them to remove
them and give them to him. When they understood that he really wanted
them, they removed them and gave them to him with a laugh.[252] This
is a case, in fact, of the beginning of clothing without a beginning
of modesty. But while we find cases of modesty without clothing and of
clothing without modesty the two are usually found together, because
clothing and ornament are the most effective means of drawing the
attention to the person, sometimes by concealing it and sometimes by
emphasizing it.
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