184 



mission boy called Tommy brought some elderly men to obviously very frightened people, who were unable to 



see me and they gave me to understand that if 1 went 



south-east to a village called Ilombagede, which is near 

 ihe Ramu, I could find there a place where boys crossed 

 and had canoes to do it in. The whole matter was 

 discussed with bated breath, why I cannot conceive, but 

 they all seemed to regard the business as a mysterious 

 one. That they admit a road south-east is extra- 

 ordinary, for up to now they have only shown me tracks 

 to the sea coast. I will speak to them again to-night. 

 15 February. — Discussion last night ended in the 

 Tultul cf Mountung admitting that he had been to 



Ilombagede and that although he had not been to the 

 Ramu, he learnt from the people that they frequently 

 went down there, made gardens on the bank and visited 

 folk on the opposite bank. The river was known down 

 there as the Keneya. 



Much heartened and with sufficient carriers, we set 

 out at 6.45 and reached Mountung at 7.30. It consists 

 of a group cf ten small huts whence eleven of my fresh 

 carriers a 



It is situated south, south-west of Nauna 

 and I crossed the Ere and rose up the range again to 

 reach it. From Mountung we travelled south-west 

 dropping off the hills into the plains and passing a 

 little hamlet called Tuganuna, crossing the Wariup at 

 10.45 and the Casiner at 11.30 and at 12.30 we reached 

 a hut with a lean-to with a hot hearth. Sending boys 

 forward we found a native who took me to a hamlet 

 of two huts and so to a garden of -i an acre and 

 another hut. These scattered huts constitute Ilomb- 



agede on the Guragen (further up it is called the 

 Yakumba). Here the ground being high I decided to 

 camp and soon after my tent was up three old men 

 came to see me with two women and four children. I 

 reassured them with trade goods and they explained 



believe that what happened to the village some years 

 ago would net occur again. I reassured them suffi- 

 ciently for them all to come back with me to my camp 



at Ilombagede, where we slept. 



There was no forest between the two places, the 

 nature of the country being frankly swampy. Sarco- 



cephalus and Barring ionia, also the big Planchonia 



wersi the most common trees, and their stems were 

 covered with twining ferns with a tangle of creepers 



such as rattans and the crimson IVAlbertis (Mucuna) 

 knitting all together. Where the land was dry enougn, 

 Scitaminae flourished, also> the large leafed white lily 



that resembles a Hip last rum, The tree lily (Dracaena) 



grows quite big hereabouts, and its hanging 

 cream flowers are quite conspicuous along the truck 

 we cut. The higher banks of the Boku had been 

 farmed, and here a well-worn path was met with. That 

 high rain forest had occurred here was plain, for the 

 following were seen: — Octamele$ 9 Pometia, A/stonta, 

 Pteroeymbium, Vitex sp. Gmelina, Celtu t Klemhovia 



hospita; the doubtful Sapotacious tree which may be a 



Payena, several Barringtonia, Eugenia (two species), 



Myristica, several figs, and both the bread fruit and the 

 big timber A rfocarpus, Pterocarpm indicus, Afz<//a, 

 Bijin/a, Cinnctmomum rnassoia, Gentum gnemon, Bac~ 

 caurea, Sloanea, Termuialia sp. near T. okari, 

 Gordia sp. 



The climbers were well represented and the branches 

 were festooned with epiphytes. Also mistletoe was 

 common. These trees were, however, but remnants of 

 the forest which had long since been converted into 

 yam and taro farms and which is now, for the most 

 part, covered with weed tree regrowth, Evodia, Mac<i- 

 rai/f/a, Brennia, and such like trees. The children in 



river. 



We are short of rations — 40 lb. and 26 cups of 



by sign that the Keneya was a good way on and that the village were playing ball with the fine oiange fruits 

 Ave would pass lonomba before we reached the main of Voacunga papuana. Grass is appearing among the 



weed trees, and a little larger population would soon 

 turn it all into savannah forest. Already Albizzia 

 procera is forming pure stands over Sacharum % mixed 

 with Zingiberaceae and a few dry shrubs such as 



Clerodendron* 



17th February. — Confidence was not restored, for all 



rice — but the boys I sent back should be on their way 



Anyway it means sending the 



to Nauna 



by 



now. 



Mountung beys back, for I must reconnoitre and that 

 will take a day or so. 



The forest around Mountung was decidedly better, 

 though that is not saying very much. It is the usual 

 rain forest type, though the presence of Impatient — a 



the lonomba boys ran away during the night. Started 

 off at 7 a.m. with my eight boys, all fully loaded; also 



rather loud pink species— is misleading, this being more the Tultul of Mountung and his mate, who professed 



a foothill and mid-mountain genus. Pometi/i was the 

 commonest species, though Evodia and other regrowth 

 trees were very numerous. It was much less swampy 



to be an interpreter. Left a great deal of gear behind 

 under a fly. Reached lonomba in three and a half 

 hours — it took me two and three-quarters yesterday. 



country than that met with towards Usina, in fact, it Being Sunday, gave the boys the rest of the day off. 



lonomba was quite deserted, the folk evidently having 



was not until noon that we met with mud. The vegeta- 

 tion has the same appearance as country cleared for 



Here and there 

 areas of grass land appear and there are signs of the 



or to grass. SacJutrum is a more 



made off last night, leaving all standing. 



In 





cultivation and grown ever again. 



drier 



portions gom 5 „ v fe 



common 



the afternoon boys from villages further up the Boku 

 came in and said they had heard that the people of 

 lonomba had bolted. A white man had never been 



_ _ genus -than Imperata. With so small and so there before, and they were all very frightened. Two 



nomadic a population, some other explanation than cul- J 30 ^ had been to work, and so my uncertain^ interpre- 



tivation must be found, for this vegetation which looks 



so like a second growth. 



16th February. — Left camp at 7.15 and crossing the 

 little river were soon entangled in a swamp a mile 

 wide with a sluggish stream flowing through the middle 

 which was shoulder deep. Then we came to drier 

 swamp country, and crossing three streams, Basen, 

 Kantabehembwe and Gesamhombakene we reached the 



firm bank of the Boku, and following this up for an 

 hour, reached the hamlet of Toncmba on the other side. 

 There we found twelve natives, who, not hearing us 

 arrive, had no time to run away. Two had been to 

 work, and through them we learnt that the village had 

 been " recruited ,? by a Chinaman and four had not 

 come back. It seems this happened during the war 

 period. They all denied any knowledge of canoes or a 

 crossing, and they made out that the Kenya (Ramu) 

 was far away and there was no road to it. They were 



ter's services were replaced by one of them. He related 

 that he and his mate and some more from his village 



had been tied up and carried off to Bogadjim by the 



same Chinaman as raided lonomba, and that they had 

 worked two contracts of three years before they re- 

 turned ; that they were not frightened, but those 

 who had not seen white men were alarmed, fearing 

 that they would be carried off; that the lonomba 

 boys who had run away last night were labouring under 

 thu same delusion. A sore-covered native and his 

 woman, also much afflicted with ulcers, crawled in, 

 having been found by my boys hiding in the grass by 

 the water. They were fed and reassured — all denied 

 any knowledge of the Ramu or of a road leading to- 

 wards it or south-east at all. Yet I know that the 

 Ramu cannot be more than 2 miles away, . and the 

 Boku must flow into it. I learnt that the villages 

 whence my visitors came are Kirike or Krip, Korone 

 or Korop. 



