290 



FILMS, PRESS, AND RADIO ON THE EXPEDITION 



After sunset we would usually hold a short conference to check the 

 day's results and pool new ideas. Then a motor horn would sound im- 

 patiently on the quay and we would put on our white dinner jackets and 

 adjust our ties, stick our Galathea badge in our lapels, and drive off to 

 give a lecture accompanied by films about Denmark to an audience of 

 600 — 700, many of whom would afterwards reveal an astonishing know- 

 ledge of the distant country from which we came. We met Indonesians 

 who knew more about Danish social services than we knew ourselves, and 

 Siamese and Indians who beat us in discussions about the music of Carl 

 Nielsen and the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard. 



Scenes from bacon factories had to be cut from films before they could 

 be shown in countries where the pig is an unclean animal; likewise, we 

 would have to cut out pictures of Danish bathing beauties because white 

 women could not be shown semi-nude. There were a lot of things to 

 think about . . . 



Sometimes the three of us who ran the information service would have 

 to part company. In the Philippines Mr. Rasmussen accompanied Dr. 

 Birket-Smith into the northern mountains of Luzon and in New Guinea 

 Mr. Hoyer went with other scientists to Rennell Island, as described in 

 previous chapters. In New Guinea. Mr. Rasmussen and I hitch-hiked by 

 plane from Port Moresby into the interior. After a flight in a small single- 

 engined machine through mountain passes at a height of 3,000 metres, on 



The Danish colony 



at Brisbane taking leave 



of the Galathea. 



