90 THE PAPUANS: COMPARATIVE NOTES, ETC., 
farther advanced towards civilisation than those dwelling nearer 
to the sea. We find them using cloth, finely hand-woven of 
bark-fibre; cement is used to fasten together the component 
parts of their arrows; and also various kinds of varnish, showing 
a great advance on those people who only employ red or yellow 
earth, lime, or charcoal to colour and adorn their ornamental 
work.” 
West of Katau dwell some tribes which are constantly at war 
with the people of Moatta, and these, Signor D’Albertis con- 
siders, belong to a distinct type. ‘‘’These skulls came from 
Badu-hubere, and are remarkable for being much flattened at 
the sides, for their length, for their weight, and for other 
strongly marked characteristics, which indicate that they belong 
to an excessively low type.” 
In reality, these skulls merely prove that a different form of 
cranium being considered fashionable among the tribes from 
which they were captured, the infants are subjected to the pro- 
cess necessary to secure that form. 
It is, however, interesting to note that this practice of ; 
artificially kneading the skull into any desired shape is in vogue 
among the tribes inhabiting Australia, and we may believe that 
it has found its way across Torres Straits to the mouth of the 
Fly River, and, presumably, along the coast on either side for 
some distance. There is no appearance, however, of its being 
practised in the interior, which, I believe, is easily accounted for, 
as the natives on the coast are constantly at war with the so- 
called bushmen. These, I believe, from my own observations 
made at the headquarters of nine distinct tribes between Port 
Moresby and Coguila, exclusive of the Motu tribe, which is a 
coast tribe, or the Koitapu, who have become amalgamated with 
their thievish neighbours, represent the typical Papuan race as 
found throughout the south-east peninsula of New Guinea. 
1Tb. Vol. IL., p 381. 
