IN DUTCH NEW GUINEA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 107, 13 January 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

IN DUTCH NEW GUINEA

STRANGE NATIVE CUSTOMS. New Guinea is a strange country, in which savagery is blended with romance, a land of weird and mystic rites and customs, and the home of pygmies, as well as other types of extraordinary human beings. There still Remain vast tracts of country where so far the white man has not trodden. We know something of the customs of many tribes, but others remain a closed book to us.

The members of the expedition organised by the British Ornithologists' Union to undertake exploration in Dutch New Guinea found opportunity to study the strange customs of the natives in that unknown country, and their report contains descriptions of many remarkable occurrences. Marriage seems to be regarded as of little importance by the natives, a»d the ceremony is very simple, though not very cheerful for the bride. The natives who live in the flat country build their houses along the banks of rivers, and use boats for communication. When a young woman is claimed as a ' wife her friends escort her in a boat to the residence of the bridegroom. Her entry into the house comprises the whole ceremony. Proceeded by an old woman, she has to crawl up the muddy bank of the river on her hands and knees, and in that degraded position she is required to enter her new home. Apparently marriages and births are very unimportant affairs, but when a death occurs in a village there is great lamenta : tion. Men and women proceed to the river and smear themselves from head to foot with mud, and everyone howls vigorously. The volume of the wailing varies in accordance with the importance of the deceased, and it is kept up without intermission until the corpse is buried. Then the near relatives of the deceased are led to the water by their friends andwashed. At two or three burials which the explorers saw all the women re-, moved every vestige of their clothing and rolled in the mud on the river banks,' returning to their homes unclothed and covered with filth. The corpse is treated in various ways. Sometimes it is buried and left in the grave till the skeleton is clean, or it may he placed in an open grave and turned over every day to hasten decomposition. In some cases it is covered simply with a grass mat and placed in a canoe-shaped box, which is kept near some relative's house. The final result is always the same. When the skull becomes bare of flesh it is preserved in the family hut and carried about whenever the family moves its quarters. The larger bones of the body are preserved in similar fashion, or simply thrown away at the will of the head i of the household. FAMILIARITY WITH THE GODS. "During the early part of our visit, a few rudely carved figures of men—apparently gods—were to be seen lying about or propped up against a tree. Little respect was shown to these images, the men leaning against or patting them familiarly," says Captain Rawlings. "When questioned as to what had become of tihe dead, we were told that they were 'far away,' this followed by a sweep of the hand to the horizon. We were considerably surprised by the richness and variety of the singing and chanting, the entire audience joining in the chorus in addition to supplying a deep-toned hum maintained during the solo. An impromptu song is devised, and the vocalist, bedecked in plumes from the greater bird of paradise, is accompanied by an orchestra of drums, the chorus, terminating, with a touch of savagery, in a shout resembling the bark of a dog and given fh unison. These concerts, given on all festive occasions, and sometimes on the night succeeding the death of an important individual, often last throughout the night, ceasing only at daybreak." BRUTAL, BUT PHYSICALLY PERFECT. This was in Dutch New Guinea, near the mouth of the Mimika river. Almost coal-black in color, and Tather exceeding the average European in height, the Mimika coast native, with his splendidly developed muscles, is physically an almost perfect man. But the brutal features of his face, accentuated by the closely cropped head, make him anything but an attractive creature. The mass of fuzzy, curly hair, in which the native of other districts take so much pride, is here cut off by means of sharpened shells, split bamboo, or an old piece of hoop iron. What remains is closely plaited in ridges. With the loss of hair nearly all love of decoration or ornament seems to have vanished, their dress consisting of a large white shell, worn on the stomach, a hollow carved bamboo, or a narrow strip of tree bark beaten soft and pliable. Round the neck a few beads may be strung, while below the knee and around the biceps a narrow band of plaited grass may often be seen. As a further attempt at ornament, a few white feathers of the hornbill may be stuck into the hair. The women are even less given to trinkets, for, besides the narrow strip of bark hanging down in front and 'behind, they are made as nature made them; poor creatures, they have little time to think of anything but work. WIDOWS' WEEDS. Widows are rather favored in this respect, for their weeds consist of a great poke bonnet, in addition to a bodice and skirt, all of grass. The instinct of selfadornment is, however, very strong, for trade articles, such as beads and cloth, are not only eagerly sought for, but worn on all important occasions. Slaves from childhood, worked from daybreak till long. after dark in the search for food, and make the man, their master, happy, they rapidly become old, haggard and hideous. Boys at an early age free themselves from maternal restraint, simply regarding their mothers as the food providers. Girls, on the other hand, cling closely to the maternal home, and from babyhood join in the work in the sago swamps, or in the search for fish and crabs. Even to unpractised eyes it is easy to distinguish the various tribes, for those coming from the east are not only of a more brutal type, but in many cases dispense with any form of ingARE THEY CANNIBALS? The front teeth of the men, but not.the women, are in many instances sharpened to a point, a painful process, for the operation is carried out, not by filing, but by chipping the sides away with a piece of iron, or, if this is not available, hard piece of shell, used after the manner of a chisel. "This custom of sharpening the teeth is often put down as* a sign of cannibalistic practices," says a member of the expedition, "but we have no reason to believe that the habit of eating human flesh is ever here put into practice. Certainly during our sojourn amongst these tribes we saw no signs of cannibalism, nor when examining the human bones preserved in every house, did we find any evidence pointing to such a custom. When questioned on this subject, some natives showed abhorrence, whilst others exhibited at any rate no great disgust at the suggestion," A TYPICAL VILLAGE. Waratina may be taken as a typical coastal village, consisting of a long row of huts made of pandanus and palm leaves, held up by poles. Each newcomer adds on his hut to the last, at the same time removing the partition, and so turning the village into one endless habitation, broken only by their respective doorways. The floors are of

sand brought from the seashore. There are the crudest of fireplaces. On the floor one will see the little wood, or bamboo, pillows common to so many of the South Sea Islands. Skulls' and bones of departed relatives' dangle in grass bags from the roof, blackened by the smoke of the fires; and, though they are supposed to keep away the bad spirits, and to be prized for that and other reasons, the owner of a house will not hesitate to barter the . skull of a deceased grandmother, or the bones of a child, for a little bit of trade print, or some other article which takes his fancy. Outside, ready for instant use, stand a stone club, a few spears—the heads fashioned from the leg bones of pigs or human beings—or a bow and a sheaf of arrows, to which weapons the natives will fly on the slightest provocation. A peaceful village one minute; the next a scene of turmoil, spears whizzing through the air, clubs being weilded indiscriminately and in whilst the air resounds with the wild yells of men and women alike. Their canoes are usually about 50ft or 60ft in length, taken from one tree trunk, and hollowed out with stone axes, Are, or, on rare occasions, by old pieces of iron. They involve an immense amount of labor, yet the natives will sell a canoe for an axe, or even a small knife or a handkerchief. THE PYGMY RACE. Of the race of .pygmies Captain Bawling writes:— "Some 40 or 45 men appeared, but despite the heaviest bribes offered for the sight of one- woman none of the latter put in an appearance, their fires at night showing them camped high up the mountain side. No woman was ever seen by us, the men refusing to exhibit their wives, even though tempted with the un-heard-of price of two axes a /woman. The men showed no fear of the camera, possibly because they knew not what it was; but at the measuring standard and* the caniometer they Were terrified, and. could only be ijiduced to submit with the heaviest of .bribes, Professor A. 0, Haddori, one of the greatest authorities on anthropology, is inclined -to believe that the plainsman and the pygmy are of the same aboriginal stock, and that the stronger members of the tribe, having seized those districts where food supplies were more abundant, have developed proportionately; whilst the weaker, far from being degenerate, as they have been termed, are the true representatives of the original race. In some respects the pygmy shows in intelligence an advance over his lowland neighbors; he builds his house on piles, and for permanent use; and, moTe important still, has words to denote the numerals up to 10, whilst the plainsman has terms for the numbers one and two only, any numeral above that being shown by the fingers and toes. The men were naked except for bright yellow gourds 12 to 17 inches length, 1y 3 inch in diameter, and tapering to a point. These, were kept in position by a piece of string tied" round the waist. Over one shoulder, was suspended a large netted bag of string, in' which were kept the fire-stick, split rattan, boar tusks, and other precious possessions. Around tie neck hung a small bag holding, tobacco and tinder. Many of the elders wore caps of cassowary feathers,. cuscus ,• fur, or' many pieces of string tied together in one knot. Necklaces were common, and made of rows of wallabies' teeth or the shoulder-blades of the same animal, or again of red and black beads. A few wore rattan twisted round the waist."