malo

Four of the women came alongside, and if they were a sample, they may be considered rather good looking, having a very fine expression, black eyes shaded by a beautiful long dark lash, features regular, figure good, rather inclined to be stout, they appeared naturally graceful and sage in their manner; their dress consisted of a piece of native cloth round the waist; the men wore the maro - the usual dress among nearly all the Polynesian Islands, it is made of several tiers of dried grass, about eighteen inches long, strung together, and fastened round their waist.

T. Beckford Simpson, Nautical Surveys - Pleasant Island, Shipping Gazette and General Sydney Trade List, Vol 1 No 12, 8 June 1844, p.85 [Simpson’s visit to Nauru of 1 February 1843].

(No Mihalic entry)
.

Noun forms

1. Material culture: a man’s public covering

2. Material culture: bark cloak – Anga culture area of Morobe, Eastern Highlands and Gulf Provinces
   ol i pasim malo na ren i no wasim ol they huddled from the rain under their bark cloaks

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