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STRAY NOTES ON PAPUAN ETHNOLOGY. 



By C. Hedley, F.L.S. 



I. The Cassowary Figure Head. 



(Plate Lviii., fig. 1.) 



A distinctive feature of the carving of Eastern New Guinea is 

 the prevalence of bird forms or their derivatives. Prof. A. C. 

 Haddon devotes to the discussion of this subject a considerable 

 section of his admirable essay on " The Decorative Art of British 

 New Guinea."* Referring to the species depicted, he writes (p. 

 197) : — " I have been unsuccessful in finding out w^hat bird is 

 intended; presumably it is the frigate bird, but this will not 

 account for the frequent representation of a crest." In some 

 instances he thought that a hornbill w^as recognisable, and quotes 

 Forbes' unpublished notes that occasionally a cockatoo, and in the 

 Louisiades a duck, was represented. 



I submit that the evidence advanced below proves that the 

 cassowary is sometimes figured, and suggests that it may be 

 symbolised by the crested bird described by Haddon. On a 

 priori grounds the cassowary, an important article of food, a 

 source of valued bone tools, and as a dangerous quarry the theme 

 of many a tale, would loom larger to the Papuan mind than the 

 frigate bird. Again, if the conjoined bird and crocodile design 

 be considered a scene, surely the last of all the fowls of the air to 

 fall a victim to that reptile's rajDacity^ would be the man-o'- war- 

 hawk as sailors term the frigate bird. It is, however, within my 

 own experience that the crane, a crested bird, may make a meal 

 for crocodiles. 



* Royal Irish Academy. Cuuningliam Memoirs. No. x. 



