27 
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH, 1907. 

A Dear and a Half among Sabages 
(BRITISH NEW GUINEA), 
BY 
Me. A. H. DUNNING, F.R.G.S., F.R.P.S., &c. 
Illustrated with Lantern Views. 

R. A. H. DUNNING at the commencement of his lecture 
asked his audience to imagine themselves in a portion of the 
globe as different as possible from any civilised country, in a land 
many parts of which have not been visited by the white man, but 
where all its native wildness, both of scenery and of inhabitants, 
is retained in its pristine state. It is a country where the “simple 
life’’ reigns supreme; and where men live under the most 
primitive conditions conceivable. The lecturer remarked “there 
are tribes in the interior who have not yet advanced beyond the 
‘Stone Age.’ ” 
Taking his audience in imagination, illustrated by a series of 
fine lantern slides, Mr. Dunning conducted them to the Benstack 
River, then westward, throughout the whole of the British 
Possessions as far as the Islands off the West Coast. 
First visiting the Roro and Moorhead Tribes, he thence 
proceeded to the Fly River, on the banks of which the natives 
were seen making sago pulp—a method which hardly commended 
itself to the educated tastes of occidentals. 
Some interesting negatives of the lake houses were shewn, 
taken under circumstances of considerable difficulty by reason of 
the panic that ensued when the necessary magnesium flash-light 
was applied. 
Passing on to the Aird River Delta, Mr. Dunning came 
across the actual murderer of Dr. Chamber, the eminent 
Missionary. 
Mareas and the natives of Waima, and the Nara tribes were 
visited, whose love-charms caused amusement when the lecturer 
stated that he required a bottle of strong smelling salts to over- 
come their potency. The Kabidi dancers and the native method 
of removing superfluous hairs also produced merriment. Mr. 
Dunning informed his audience that owing to the influence of 
civilisation a piece of broken glass is now preferred to the 
primeval razor—a sharp flint! 
