794 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 
description of one of them may be taken as typical of all. In the 
rock or pumice formation there was one or more irregularly 
shaped pits, but how deep these were it was impossible to say, as 
no one could approach them near enough to see. From these pits 
there wag just a light steam escaping, and then in a few minutes 
there was an explosion, accompanied by an eruption of boiling 
water. The water was thrown to a height of about 20 or 30 feet. 
After this subsided we could only hear the angry roar beneath ; 
then perhaps a few small dashes of water would be ejected, and 
then more roaring and trembling of the ground which was soon 
followed by another violent outburst. I managed to get a few 
photographs which give some faint idea of the appearance of the 
place and of the Geysers in action. I noticed no sulphur deposits, 
so that, in this respect, these fumaroles differ from those in 
Seymour Bay, on the opposite side of the bay which I visited in 
1890. The natives told us that some Normanby natives would 
not believe that the water was boiling, and so went to bathe in 
one of the pools and were scalded to death. J think it is more 
probable that they had incautiously ventured too near one of 
them and the ground had given way under them, or that they 
were overwhelmed by an unexpected eruption of water. They 
told us also that one of their own women who had quarrelled 
with her husband once threw herself into one of the holes in her 
anger and was never seen again. We experienced no earthquake 
during our visit, and this, the people told us, was a very unusual 
experience. 
SIGNS OF MOURNING. 
Tn addition to the universal sign of blacking the face or body, 
I noticed several other signs which, to me, were peculiar, and one 
which I had not previously met with in any Papuan race, though 
it is quite common amongst eastern Polynesian peoples. This 
was the custom which I saw amongst the Goodenough people at 
Bwaidoga, on that island, of amputating a joint or joints from 
the fingers of relatives when any of their friends were sick. Ata 
village called Iakalova we saw people whose hands had been thus 
mutilated—one woman having one or two joints removed from 
her first, third, and fourth fingers ; many others, including mere 
children, were thus disfigured. This is an interesting instance of 
similarity amongst those whom some people think are essentially 
different races. In the Engineer Group the women have black- 
ened faces and bodies, and shoulder belts of the white Cowrie 
shells. At Fergusson Island the women wear white plaited 
armlets, a broad belt of the same kind round the body, just above 
the breasts, and a narrow one all of the same material crossed 
round the neck. On Dobu they wear a great bundle of small 
cords suspended round the neck. 
