Singsing (part 3)

(The Croslands all bilased up)

      So as I said the other day bilas is decorations but that is really an over simplification. Like so many tok pisin words bilas can mean a lot of different stuff. And in this case it meant just about all of them. As you can see from the picture above  it can mean decorating yourself and that is what I'm going to talk about today.

    The afternoon of the singsing finally arrived and it was time for us to get ready. At this point the men and women went to separate areas to get ready. I can’t tell you exactly what the women did but hopefully Tiffany can do that later.

(Tiffany and a friend decked out and ready to go)

(Mae and Rita)

      Matthew, Isaac, Silas, and I went across the river and a into the bush a little ways to the haus tamaran (men’s house). This is a place where the men go to do things like coming of age ceremonies and prepare for singsings. The first thing that we did was to gather all the necessary bush materials.

     Some of the younger boys were sent up a coconut tree to get new leaves. Some went around gathering brightly colored leaves. Others went and gathered a seed pod off a plant that they called diwai pen (tree paint). Still others were collecting kokonas dri (coconuts). While other were making decorative rope. It was an amazing thing to take in. All sorts of stuff was going on at one time and everyone seemed to know exactly what to do without being told. Everyone was laughing and having a good time.

(Matthew and Isaac taking a break between sets)

    The diwai pen and the gris bilong kokonas were mixed and we were all slathered liberally. Turning us white skins and interesting orangeish red color. The boys then put on the red laplaps (wrap) and I put on the malo (loin cloth made from tree bark). After all this was done we were adorned with leaves, ropes, boars teeth necklaces, headdresses, and paspas (arm bands). Finally, we were given our instruments. I was given a kundu (an hourglass shaped drum) and the boys were given sticks.

     We marched back across the river and back into the edge of the village. And then we …

You’ll have to find out in part 4. I promise there will be a special surprise too!