BY WILLIAM E. ARMIT, F.L.S., F.R.G.S. 113 
touching their navel and then pinching the top of their nose 
gazing at me earnestly the while, and concluding by raising the 
eyebrows and giving a jerky sort of ‘“‘ huff.’”’ I soon discovered 
that this was to be understood as an inviolable bond of friend- 
ship, and whenever I had gone through this ceremony I felt 
pertectly safe wherever I might be. 
Often when enquiring about Duan (Normanby Island), which 
I was most anxious to explore, Terabiai, the chief of Secco-co-a, 
in Hoop-iron Bay, assured me that the people of Normanby 
were his good friends, which he accentuated by going through 
this pantomime. Farther to the westward this custom is 
inverted, the nose being touched and then the stomach. Rubbing 
noses, foreheads, and chins are similarly practised as a form of 
greeting, answering to our hand shaking. Am exchange of 
names is also much in vogue. 
Polygamy is restricted to the chiefs, who have two to five 
wives at will. ; 
The natives wherever I went seem to honor their parents and 
hold them in reverent affection. 
Mr. J. Chalmers, the well-known missionary and gallant 
explorer, mentions, fide ‘“‘Matina,’’ a native teacher, that in 
Aroma a custom prevails of burying old and decrepid relatives, 
I think this, however, requires confirmation. 
The natives hunt the wild pigs regularly, using strong nets 
which are stretched along the crest of a ridge. Men are 
stationed at short distances ready to slaughter the animals 
which are driven by a number of beaters. 
This sport is not unattended with danger. At Port Moresby 
I saw a Kiotapuan whose thigh had been ripped from knee to 
hip by one slash from a boar’s tusk. A pig-catcher is used, 
consisting of a strong cane ring covered with net. 
When a boar charges, which it invariably does, the hunter 
avoids it by jumping deftly aside, and, at the same time 
strikes the enraged animal over the snout with the net, which, 
