ABSTRACT
Clothing was no minor matter for the missionaries who wanted to cover the natives' nakedness with western attire and mother-hubbard frocks that masked the curves of a body as well as the lure of its flesh. Clothing like Robert Louis Stevenson's pyjamas offered a minimum amount of protection from his surroundings and, for the most part, served to distinguish him from the natives, but the habit of Stevenson and his family to walk around barefooted offered absolutely none. Consequently, even though Stevenson's preference for pyjamas was somewhat disturbing to his friends, the choice of casting off his shoes was significantly more upsetting, for now there was absolutely no symbolic boundary between the vulnerable flesh and the alien land. Dressing up not only makes more noticeable the gap between the body and the dress; it also makes more real the certainty that, finally, the body can no longer be sustained, protected, or represented by what adorns it.
