THE DOBUANS OF S.E. PAPUA. 471 



Sometimes there -would be a dispute as to the wisdom of the 

 adoption, but when the decision had been made there would be no 

 disabilities. On one occasion a girl-prisoner was brought to 'Edugaula,. 

 and the women took a fancy to her. The men wished to kill and eat 

 her, but the women persisted that she was a fit subject for adoption, 

 and took her into a house to protect her from the designs of the men, 

 who, in the end, gave in to the wishes of the women. The girl was 

 treated as a daughter of the tribe, mamed happily, and brought up a 

 family, who inherit through her as if she had been bom in 'Edugaula. 



In our own case one day I was asked to go to the principal 

 villages with my wife and daughter. A cocoanut tree was pointed out 

 to me with a little land around it, and I was told that it was to be 

 mine without payment, and I was to be "' father." Another tree in 

 another village was given to my wife in the same way, and she was 

 to be " mother." A third tree in another village was handed over to 

 my daughter, and she was to be '' sister." The warrior chief, Gaganu- 

 more, then presented me with a pair of broad, white, shell armlets, 

 and without any attempt at secrecy other than looking around to see 

 that there Avere no strangers about, he made me acquainted with the 

 signs of treacheiy and of peace. In some parts of South-easteni 

 Papua »the peace sign is made by touching first the nose and then the 

 navel. On one occasion the commander of a visiting Avar vessel calmed 

 the suspicions of the natives by answering from his ship a man who' 

 was most excitedly performing these signs as he stood amongst the 

 crowd on the beach. When the Rev. Ambrose Fletcher and I paid our 

 first visit to Bwaidoga, on Goodenough Island, as our whaleboat 

 rounded the point at the entrance to Mud Bay, many coast villages, 

 opened up. When our boat was observed there followed great excite- 

 ment. The women and children fled into the bush; the men seized 

 their spears and ran behind the trees, whence they peered out on us. 

 To allay suspicion we jumped to the bows of the boat and gave the 

 nose and navel signs. Immediately there was a response, the men put 

 their spears away, and the women and children came out of hiding 

 with the gi'eatest of confidence. As the scene of the A'isit of the gun- 

 boat was fully 50 miles south of Bwaidoga, amongst natives unknown 

 to the Bwaidogans, it is evident these signs are used over a consider- 

 able area. 



The signs at Dobu are somewhat different, each breast being 

 touched in turn, to indicate that 3'ou are of one family. The signs of 

 treachery are given with the eye and the foot. 



THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN THE 'EDUGAULA THIBE. 



Descent is through the mother, to whose family the children 

 belong. On the deatli of a v.oman the surviving consort goes into- 

 severe mourning under the charge of his mother-in-law, from whom he 

 is only released after a succession of ceremonies. The widower then 

 goes to his own village, leaving his children and all but his own actual 

 po.ssesgions to his late wife's family. 



The women are by no means slaves, but have a voice in all the 

 family and village concerns. In many duties the women have a 

 distinct sphere from the men, but in general matters they have an 

 equal voice. They haA^e ownership in land, and frequently pVevent the 

 men from selling native Avenlth. 



