THE LIFE HISTORY OF A PAPUAN SAVAGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1419, 29 November 1886, Page 2

THE LIFE HISTORY OF A PAPUAN SAVAGE.

The Rev Gtorge Brown, the well-known mhsicna’y, re-d an interesing paper before the BrhLh Assoclat on at Birmingham, in which he described the life bistort of a native of Now Britain, an island in the Polynesian group, about torty miles north-east of New Guinea. He commenced with the birth of the examo’e child, and »aid that when a child was born to the Papuan people who occupied this island a warm banana leaf wa? wr pped around his body, and he was fed wi h the expressed juice f the c< ca-nit, and left ever afterwards to be “ dressed in p <re sunshine.” (Lauglve ) He described the children’s game of •h' people and the iniiiat on ■ f il o b iy as he giew up into certain secret rit p, and the ceremonies at the w on? feasts, especially on nis marriage, and the feast when h > was taught to curse his enenres; Oo the oc-ssion of bis marriagthero was : n interch •nge of goods and a dlstinc' paytneir- for the wife Presents were also given by the »'>m -n to the br'dand by the men to the husband, and after a broom had been given to the former, and a spear to the Utter, a st ck was aiv--n to the mvp. 'ihe spear maun- that the husha'd was 'o protect bis wife, and th - broom th rt with it 'he w fe was to do her household work, and sti k—“ here’s the stick wi'h which to whack her if she does not ” (Laughter.) At h* time of death the cries of the friends of the decoas-d were very piteous and touching. The dead pnraoo was cried to to o >rae back, wan esp seated wbh for hav ng left his friends, was intr.’a'ed to say how his friends had - flooded him, and so on, the mourners seeming to be speaking in th-v--ry presence t» ’ho spirit, of the d -.'d p-rson. The more th y tudied the life and character <f here peop’e the more would it he found that there was more p >etry and common sense in their ideas than they wore give > credit f or. They ha 1 intuitive pjrcoptiona of good and bad, right and wrong, ar;o ding to t-'-eir light*. Many of the things which his hearers would call good t ! ey also celled good but they had t>o definite idea of a future state nor of punishment except for one offender, the niggardly man. When an old man came near death he was placed upon a litter nd carried around to see the old scenes srad which he had parsed his life—his canoe, the sea, and all the old familiar subjects, and then he was taken back to wa t his time. After death he was plac d in a chair and tvken into fte public square, wth his weapons by his side, and before him *ha peop’e placed offerings of their valuable goo is and mo >ey. The idea was that the spirit was orar, but was ah ut to go, and that he must be provided for his journey, and here they found something like the Greek practice of placing a coin in the hands of the dead to pay the ferryman.