1013] on The Pygmies of New Guinea 707 



tide, and tlicro was only one notable rise in tlie day, took place always 

 between live and nine o'clock in the morning. 



The natives, men of splendid physique but of brutal counten- 

 ance, showed great joy at our arrival. Only on one previous occasion 

 had they seen white men, and then only for an hour or so, but the 

 trade they had obtained must have been such as to have made them 

 long for the advent of the, to them, peculiar race who were willing 

 to exchange steel axes for stone ones. Not until we had proceeded 

 five miles up the river was a spot found upon which the base camp 

 could be built. 



The only available ground on the right bank was occupied by 

 Wakatimi village, the site chosen for the camp consisting of a penin- 

 sula formed by the bend of the river facing the village. This we 

 then believed was well above any possible rise of the Mimika, but 

 such proved not to be the case, for in June the whole peninsula was 

 flooded for three days to a depth of from two to six feet. The 

 Mimika is tidal for six miles above Wakatimi, the natives shifting 

 their temporary villages from river to river according to the amount 

 of water descending from the hills. 



Natives poured in to inspect us from all parts, showing no fear, 

 but only a keenness to trade. Anxious as they were to obtain cloth, 

 beads, knives, axes, etc., yet not a day's work could we ever get out 

 of any of the coast tribes. The women do all the manual labour, 

 and their time was far too fully employed for them to give any to 

 our requirements. Fortunately they were willing to supply any 

 amount of roofing for the huts, pandanus leaves being treated in a 

 similar manner as in Java and elsewhere in the East. Canoes already 

 in use they sold freely, a priceless asset to us, for no means of river 

 transport had been imported into the country by the expediti(jn. 

 The natives refused to assist in poling or paddling our canoes up the 

 river, for, as we afterwards learnt, the line of demarcation between 

 the coast and up-river natives is very strictly observed, and the line 

 at this place lies at the head of the tidal waters. After several 

 attempts, the village of Parimau, at the head-waters of the Mimikia, 

 was reached. Six marches separated it from Wakatimi. The 

 people were of similar build and not to be distinguished from the 

 coast people except that they were of pleasanter countenance and 

 better workers. The Wakatimi natives had proved themselves a 

 drunken, swashbuckling crew, always ready for a brawl, and per- 

 petually excited by copious draughts of the potent beer of the sugar- 

 palm. The Parimau men were unable to obtain alcohol on account 

 of the absence of palms, and this may account for their more orderly 

 disposition. This is only used in a comparative sense, for the people 

 fly to arms on the slightest provocation, men and women alike. An 

 individual quarrel is taken up by the whole village, in less than a 

 minute a scene of quiet and peace being turned into a pandemonium. 

 The weapon chiefly favoured is the stone club, at least one of which 



