A cap worn by an Aboriginal woman as part of a mourning ritual, made from gypsum paste.
when a widow's term of mourning was over, she would take the widow's cap and place it on the grave of her husband
Example sentencesExamples
- The skull of one skeleton from the Lake Victoria site was adorned with a gypsum 'widow's cap'.
- A complete specimen of a widow's cap resembles the modern crash helmet worn by motor cyclists and may be from half an inch to one inch thick.
- A widow wearing a widow's cap, with her face and body smeared with white pipe-clay, was a sign of mourning.
- There was a gypsum "widow's cap" left on the head at the time of burial.
- She puts on her widow's cap, which, as it wears out, has to be renewed for many months.