The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, MARCH 4th, 1912. NEW GUINEA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 58, 4 March 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, MARCH 4th, 1912. NEW GUINEA.

Mr. Robert -W Williamson a traveller Avho last year was with an expedition to the interior of New Guinea, spent a considerable time amongst the people of that country. From a very interesting account he gives we learn that many of the Villages were in the mountains at a height of from four to five thousand feet above sea-level and little was previously known '■about them. Mr. •Williamson succeeded in collecting such information about their arts, crafts, customs, 'ceremonials, and superstitions. Ho described the characteristics 'of this people of short stature whose art is very primitive, who give great attention to the cultivation of the pig, and are-in no small degree devoted to the dance and feasts. Birth and funeral ceremonials of a somewhat peculiar kind were described, and all the lecture was profusely illustrated with 'lantern slides. A most important ceremonial, the 'lecturer said, Vas the “Big Feast,” which only occurred at long intervals, and at which the scaffolding of one of the chiefs’ platform graves

was cut 'away and the skull and bones of the chief, which fell 'to the ground, as well as those of other prominent people, were worn by the dancers on their arms. These ‘were afterwards the subject of an important ceremonial, some of them being dipped an the blood of slain pigs, and 'all the others being touched with the hones so dipped, after which all the skulls and bones might bo thrown away. The origin and purpose of this feast whs not known to the Mafulu, people, but Mr Williamson had little doubt that it must bo sought for in a desire finally to “lay” the ghosts of the departed great ones. The MafuJu were cannibals, he said, but not

head hunters, the victims always being persons of another community killed in individual bight or in battle. Killing for the sake of eating was

never resorted to. Infanticide was very common. Mr Williamson’s observations on the* probable ancestry of the Mafuhi convinced him that there was other ‘blood than the Papuan or Melanesian in their veins, and in view of their short stature, their slight but strong physique, their comparatively rounded heads, the dark colour of their skin, and the predominating brown colour of their hair, he was of opinion that this third blood was Negrito, and suggested that they were in part descended from an original inhabitants of the whole island of New Guinea before the present Papuan and

Melanesian races established the: selves there.