48 Naturalist at Large 



of New Guinea, among them Windessi, where Mr. Van 

 Balen had been immured as a missionary for years. He and 

 Mr. Van Hasselt, located on Mansinam Island in Doreh 

 Bay, were the only Dutchmen in New Guinea at that 

 time. Van Hasselt had tried to translate the Bible into 

 Numfoor, the most widely spoken of the Papuan idioms. 



A knowledge of Hawaiian will carry you from Hono- 

 lulu through all the Polynesian Islands to New Zealand 

 with only a few consonantal changes, but most languages 

 in New Guinea won't carry you across the street, since 

 almost every village speaks its own tongue. I understand 

 Mr. Van Hasselt had to give up his task because the presen- 

 tation of abstract ideas in Numfoor was utterly impossible. 

 I report this, however, on hearsay. 



Pom, Wooi, and Ansus were the towns we visited on 

 Japen Island. Here the natives were distinctly non-co-opera- 

 tive and Ah Woo would not go on shore, saying that too 

 many Chinese had been eaten there in the past. We did 

 try a landing at the little town of Meosbundi on Wiak 

 Island, but when we went ashore and tried to buy some 

 drums and other objects for the Peabody Museum, we 

 saw the women sneaking off into the thick bush and climb- 

 ing away up into their httle houses set up fifty or sixty 

 feet above the ground. The first officer allowed that this 

 was a bad sign and we had better pull out. And we did, 

 quite obviously just in time, for a cohort of yelling, mop- 

 headed natives thronged the beach. Perhaps they were 

 simply showing ofT, but the officers of the ship had no 

 desire to encounter the inquiry which would perforce have 

 been held had we been killed, even though we had signed 

 waivers of responsibility before we left Java. 



