6l 



They have no pots or cooking vessels and consequently all their 

 food is roasted over the fire ; the only exception I saw was in the case 

 of the leaves of an oleaginous plant which they boil as a vegetable in 

 bamboos. We saw no evidence of pc^lygamy, and the probability is that 

 it is not largely practised. From the inhabitants we saw, the women 

 folk seemed less numerous than the men but this may have been 

 owing to the warriors keeping them in the background. Children 

 seemed fairly plentiful. The time of the men is principally occupied 

 in clearing ground for gardens, hunting the pig, cassowary, and flying 

 fox, building houses, making weapons, and cutting down sago trees. 

 The women make all the sago — a continuous and exacting occupation 

 — look after the gardens, do the cooking, and carry water required 

 for household [)urpo3es in bamboos. They also hammer out the tapa 

 cloth from the bark of a tree, and look after the rising generation. 



These bushmen are certainly not a nomadic people. Their 

 buildings are substantial, and, in every instance, they had a consider- 

 able garden and a number of village pigs. Their weapons consist of 

 the bow and arrow, a heavy pig spear which is not used for throwing, 

 and a man-killing club. Very rarely we saw stone clubs; these had 

 probably oeen introduced from the coastal districts. The bow and 

 arrow men wore plaited gauntlets from wrist to elbow on the right 

 arm. The stone axe and adze are largely used. The natives do little 

 carving except on their arrows (which are made of bamboos often 

 tipped with bone or a cassowary's claw), spears, and wooden clubs. 

 They also carve out wooden bowls to hold water ; these have no 

 ornamentation. The tribes on the western portion of the plateau 

 seemed to be at war with each other during our visit; they were 

 frequently met in full war paint; with bundles of arrows and killing 

 clubs; in one instance they informed us by signs that they were on 

 their way to tight a neighbouring tribe. Possibly, constant inter- 

 necine strife keeps their numbers down, and accounts for the com- 

 paratively sparse population, as the climate is bracing and healthy 

 and the natives singularly free from disease and full of vigour. 



Their method of making fire is superior to the usual Papuan 

 system. They get a piece of dry soft wood, split one end and insert 

 a piece of tapa cloth, then taking a piece of cane, which they carry 

 twisted round their waists, they place it under the wood on which 

 they stand. Grasping each end of the cane, they pull it 

 backwards vigorously; when it has eaten halfway through the wood 

 to the tapa cloth the haat generated is so great that the cloth 

 smoulders and is blown into flame. The whole process is accom- 

 plished in ten or fifteen seconds. I am informed that certain natives 

 on the main range about Kagi adopt this system also; if so, it is 

 interesting as possibly shewing some connection between them. 



With the exception of two large villages, all the natives we saw 

 were split up into small tribes, and each community has one com- 

 munal dwelling, varying in siz.% according to their numbers, whiili 

 -would probab'y range from te.i or fifteen up to s.'venty or ei.uhty. 



