HORRIBLE CUSTOM IN NEW GUINEA.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1104, 26 October 1883, Page 3

HORRIBLE CUSTOM IN NEW GUINEA.

The special correspondent of the Melbourne Argus in New Guinea writes in reference to Boiori, the native at-whose place he was staying “ His .daughter, who died six or eight months ago,, lies above my -head in the house. This curious custom of keeping (heir dead is the roost abominable I have heard of. When a persons dies, the body is placed on a species of screen over a trough as long as the corpse. It is kept thus until swollen almost to bursting, when an incision is made into it and the juices pressed into the trough. All the relatives and friends have by this time arrived and a great feed ensues. The children are led up ito the body one at a time, and their foreheads and faces daubed with the horrible liquid in the trough. This alone is sufficient :to propagate disease and decimate a tribe. Imagine a smallpox case and the consequences. The body is then placed on a screen and exposed to the sun until perfectly dried, when it is wrapped in aromatic leaves and slung in a net hammock across oho corner of the only room the house contains. It does not resemble a human form, but merely an elongated-parcel. And these people occupy this same room quite unconcernedly, although that fearful— It is stretched there Jalmost within reach. They seem quite callous to the fact that the shadow of death is hovering round and about them./ I described our mourning and burial ceremonies to Boion and his people through Belford, and his answer was very characteristic of the inveterate stubborness of superstition. t YtrS,’ be said, ‘ that is very'good indeed for the Britaniata, very good indeed. But then it would not do at all for us Sogere men. Oh, no ! We know best what is to be done. It is well. ”