BY WILLIAM E. ARMIT, F.L.S., F.R.G.S. 107 
of some very hard wood. The men are more vain than the 
women in this curious style of society, and they spend hours 
daily plucking out hairs, jerking their mop-heads into shape, 
and besmearing their faces with a bituminous substance, which 
has the appearance of lacquer. They dearly love variegated 
leaves, flowers, and ferns, and are scarcely ever without one or 
more blossoms of the scarlet Hibiscus stuck in their hair or 
armlets. These are beautifully plaited from the stems of a fern, 
a species of Gleichenia, which abounds almost everywhere in 
the Island. In plaiting, however, the people of New Guinea 
fall far behind those of the Solomon Islands, many of whose 
designs executed in differently coloured grasses are real works 
of art. 
The art of carving in wood is practised to a much greater 
extent among some tribes than among others. In the S.E. of 
the Island the gable-ends of houses, wall and earth plates, cross- 
beams, canoes, and almost every tool, weapon, or implement is 
beautifully carved. In this respect the coast people are before 
those of the inland tribes, who do not seem to have the same 
artistic taste. 
Cannibalism is not practised universally, but only here and 
there along the coast, and among the islands. At Orangerie 
Bay, Cloudy Bay, and near East Cape the people delight in a 
human dish. At Basilisk, Moresby, and the Islands of the 
Engineer Group, men, women, and children are still eaten. At 
Moresby Island I witnessed the boiling of a two-year-old baby, 
which, together with its mother, had been captured at Basilisk 
Island. The unfortunate mother had been digested previous to 
my arrival, and her child soon went the same road. It was tied 
to a wicker-work frame, and dropped, living, into a large native 
boiler full of boiling water. There was a smothered cry, a tiny 
hand and foot quivered for a second, and all was over. Yet, 
even here, very many of the people did not assist at the feast. 
