106 THE PAPUANS: COMPARATIVE NOTES, ETC., 
of many shapes, often a mere disk whose cutting edge would 
crash through a skull as if it were an egg shell, others are stars’ 
not unlike the heavy ‘‘ Morgenstern”’ of the middle ages. They 
are wonderfully true, and this has often astonished me, con- 
sidering the primitive tools at their disposal. They are gene- 
rally of (obsidian), but I have seen quartz clubs bored and 
beautifully embossed. Slings are also used. Charms are much 
worn and firmly believed in, they are purchased from sorcerers 
who make a fortune easily, by gulling the people. 
The people on some portions of the coast are adepts in the 
art of canoe building. They sell these to their neighbours and 
purchase food with the proceeds. Many coast tribes do not 
cultivate sufficient to supply their yearly wants, and depend on 
that account on trade to make up the deficiency. They 
undertake yearly voyages to distant parts in search of sago, 
yams, and other produce for which they in return give pottery, 
stone axes, adzes or clubs. 
In south-eastern New Guineaasmall “coin” is highly esteemed. 
It is made from some kind of shell, and is worked up into 
necklets, bracelets, and other ornaments. The Teste Islanders 
call it ‘‘ New Guinea money.” 
The manufacture of pottery is carried on largely at Annua- 
pata, Port Moresby, and also at Teste Island, as also at many 
other places on the coast. Inland, however, wherever I went I 
found the natives using the primitive stone-oven, just as our 
own aborigines do at the present time. Yet the Koiari could 
obtain pots from the Motu for a mere song ! 
The Papuans are very fond of music, but it cannot be said 
that they have attained even the rudiments of the art. They 
can make a most hideous noise, and their singing consists of a 
dconing, monotonous repetition of a few words which, as often 
as not, are excessively indecent. The hour-glass shaped drum is 
conspicuous everywhere in New Guinea. A very primitive pipe 
is made from a reed, and I have also seen a sort of Jews-harp made 
