ETHNOGRAPHY OF BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 233 



valuable summary of the more important customs and beliefs 

 of the Toaripi is given by Chalmers (1890, pp. 31 1-3 17) and 

 a list of their games (1887, A., p. 6b). 



That part of the British Protectorate which extends 

 from Cape Possession (lat. 8 C $d S.) to Orangerie Bay 

 (about io° 30' S.) may conveniently be termed The Central 

 District. It contains a large number of tribes, which may 

 be roughly grouped into three classes : ( 1 ) The Papuan 

 Hill tribes, (2) the Melanesian colonists, and (3) the mixed 

 tribes. Speaking in general terms the Melanesian immi- 

 grants occupy the great part of the coast as far as Redscar 

 Bay, having driven inland the autocthonous population, 

 but everywhere there has been more or less a mixture 

 of the two peoples. Even among some of the hill tribes 

 there appear to be traces of racial mixture. From 

 about Redscar Bay, or Hall Sound, to Cape Possession 

 it seems that the coast population is essentially Papuan 

 with an admixture of Melanesian blood. The main tribes 

 of this district are the Maiva and Kivori, Mekeo, and 

 Roro. 



1. The Mixed Tribes. — The Maiva country, just 



south of Cape Possession, is the southern limit of dance- 

 masks (Chalmers, 1887, p. 50). These people use the large 

 oblong wooden shield characteristic of the Toaripi. Chal- 

 mers (1885, pp. 135, 185, 271-275; 1887, pp. 241-244, 

 270-274) describes the people, their sacred houses, or ditbus, 

 etc., and a Maiva sorcerer (pp. 310-318). Stone (p. 186) 

 has a short account of the people, and valuable information 

 is given by Edelfeld (p. 131). Mekeo is the name given 

 to the populous and fertile district up the Paumumu or St. 

 Joseph River ; a very interesting description of it is given 

 by Macgregor (C. A., 1, 1890, pp. 76-83; cf. abstract in 

 Journ. Antk. Inst., xxi., 1891, pp. 201-204). An account 

 of the trouble caused by some of the tribes and how Mac- 

 gregor quieted them will be found in C. A., 1, 1892, pp. 

 19-21 ; C. A., 1, 1893, pp. 15-22). Edelfeld (pp. 126-130) 

 was the hrst to describe this district. The people are in- 

 dustrious and intelligent ; near Nauea is a regular market 

 place, where three or four tribes meet on certain days. 



