io8 



NATURE 



\ymic T, 1876 



thegrimnces of the natives as they drink ; very little, too, 

 goes a long way, for a small wine-glassful suffices, in half 

 an hour, to make a man unsteady upon his legs. Old 

 people only are allowed to indulge, for it is strictly for- 

 bidden by custom to women and children. The Papuan 

 keu appears to be identical with the katua of the Poly- 

 nesians, only these latter add more water. 



The cuisine is in every way more elaborate than among 

 the Polynesian aborigines, both as regards variety of 

 dishes and the use of earthenware. Though food is 

 mostly prepared with sea-water, the Papuans, neverthe- 

 less, know how to roast flesh or fish, or bake it, enveloped 

 in leaves, in the ashes. As on account of the climate 

 cooked food will rot keep Jong, the Papuans either roast 

 (e.g. in the case of the CoUocasia and Dioscorea) on the 

 morrow the remnant of that which is stewed to-day, or 

 7'!ce versd. as is the case with fish, which is fried imme- 

 diately after it is caught, and stewed with vegetables 

 on the following day. By this means the millions of 

 mildew spores and mycelia which in a few hours invade 

 and pervade all food, whether roast or boiled, are arrested 

 in development, and so rendered harmless. The men 

 help the women in the preparation of food ; in fact, on 

 festal occasions and on the entertainment of an honoured 

 guest, this is done entirely by the men alone. On ordinary 

 occasions the husband cooks for himself alone, and the 

 wife for herself and the children apart. The two sexes 

 never eat at the same hearth, er o'.it of the same dish. 



The domestic utensils consist of earthenware pots of 

 various sizes, and of wooden dishes. They are of the I 

 following varieties : — ' 



Pots {wab). — These are usually of the same shape ; | 

 being almost round, and tending somewhat to a point at 

 the bottom. They are made in a few coast villages and j 

 in the neighbouring islands, and, though generally pre- j 

 pared with great care, show but few ornamentations — | 

 these consisting either of straight lines, rows of dots, or \ 

 small curves, evidently impressions of the nails.* The j 

 mountain people do not understand this manufacture, 

 and so must obtain their pots either by present or by 

 barter. 



The wooden utensils {tabir) consist of large round or oval 

 plates and bowls, and seem very cleverly made, considering 

 that the only tools used in their construction are either of 

 stone or of bone. They are finally smooth polished with 

 fragments of shells, and a black dye is then rubbed in. 

 The " tabir " forms, with the weapons, the most important 

 possessions and articles of barter for the Papuans. 



The shells of the cocoa-nut {gamba) are used as plates 

 by the lower members of a family, as it is only for the 

 father of the family or for a guest that food is served in 

 the large wooden bowl?. 



A kind of fork {hassen) is used at meals, consisting of 

 a pointed stick. Three of these are sometimes tied 

 together, and are then generally carried in the hair, as 

 they also serve ihe purpose of head-scratchers. 



The kai is a kind of spoon made from a cocoa-nut or 

 mollusc shell ; while the schilhipa is made from a flat 

 splinter of kangaroo or pig's bone, and can be used either 

 as a knife or shallow spoon, 



A very important implement — the jarur — is made 

 merely from a smooth shell, in which teeth are cut with a 

 stone. This is used to grate the albumen of the cocoa- 

 nut, which is usually only eaten in this form. 



The implements and arms are as follow : — " If we look 

 at," says Maclay, "their buildings, their ;?>z><?ij7/^i- (canoes), 

 their utensils, and their weapons, and then cast our eyes 

 upon the stone axe and some fragments of pebbles and 

 shells, we must perforce be struck with astonishment, if 

 only at the great patience and skill displayed by these 

 savages," Ihe axe, which, though their chief implement, 

 is, no one will deny, a tool simple enough, consists of a 

 hard, grey, green, or white stone, which has become 



smooth and sharp by long polishing. Hatchets have 

 been seen by Maclay in the " Archipelago of Content- 

 ment," which were made out of a thick clam {Tridacna) 

 shell, instead of from stone. A portion of the stem of a 

 tree, which has a branch passing off at an angle, some- 

 what like the numeral 7, is hewn ofT, and upon the branch, 

 which has been cut ofif short and shaven flat at the top, 

 the stone is laid horizontally and bound fast with lianas 

 or various kinds of tree-barks. Such an implement can 

 only be used to advantage by one accustomed to handle 

 it ; otherwise, either the stone is broken or nothing results. 

 The aborigines, however, can with their axe, having a 

 cutting edge of only two inches in breadth, fell a tree 

 trunk of twenty inches in diameter, or carve with the 

 same really fine figures upon a spear. Every village pos- 

 sesses a large axe or two having a cutting edge about 

 three inches broad, and which is wielded with both arms, 

 while the ordinary axe of two inches edge is employed 

 with the right arm only. The stone of the hatchets, a 

 kind of agate, is confined to the mountain people, and is 

 not found in superfluity. Each adult is in possession of 

 only one good axe, the lar^e ones being kept by their 

 owners as things of the utmost value and rarity. 



Fragments of flints and of shells are used to put the 

 finishing touches to work done in the rough with the 

 stone axe, the shells being preferred to the flints, as being 

 not so brittle. All sorts of devices can be carved upon 

 bamboo with shell fragments. The great combs of the 

 Papuans and the bamboo boxes in which the lime for 

 betel-chewing is kept, as well as their arrows, furnish 

 instances of this art. 



The dongan is a pointed or flatly split bone, having the 

 shape either of a dagger or of a chisel. For the first- 

 named pattern the bones of the cassowary and (but rarely) 

 those of man are used, while those of pigs and of 

 dogs are employed for the latter form. The " dongan s " 

 are used for cutting either raw or cooked fruit, and are 

 generally carried on the arm, being supported by the arm- 

 ring. 



A knife is made from the bamboo by removing the 

 inner woody fibres at the edge of a fragment, so that only 

 the sharp siliceous outer part is retained. With this, 

 meat and fruit and vegetables are cut up, while the dongan 

 is never used for cutting, but only for splitting and 

 piercing. 



The weapons comprise — 



1. The chadga, a spear used for throwing, about 

 6 fr. 8 in. in length, and made of a hard, heavy wood. It 

 is the most dangerous and most universally used of the 

 Papuan weapons. 



2. There is also a longer, but lighter, spear, the serwaru, 

 tipped with a sharpened piece of bamboo, which, after a 

 victim has been struck, breaks off from the shaft and 

 remains in the wound. 



3. The aral is a bow, about two yards long, the string 

 of which is made from bamboo. 



4. The arrows, aral-^e, are about one yard long, of 

 which the tip is as much as a third or a quarter of the 

 shaft in length, and is sometimes provided with barbs. 



5. A most dangerous kind oi zxro^, pal om by name, is 

 of the same size as the preceding, but resembles the 

 serwaru in having a broad bamboo tip. For catching 

 fish there is yet another variety of arrow, the saran, pro- 

 vided with four or five points. When fishing by torch- 

 light, the Papuans use the jur, a harpoon with numerous 

 tips of hardened wood, and furnished, in order that it may 

 not sink, with a bamboo shaft. 



The inhabitants of the neighbouring islands — Bili-Bili, 

 Jafn-Bojnba, Griger, Tiara, 8cc. — possess in addition 

 large shields, about a yard in diameter, made out of a 

 hard wood, and ornamented with carvings. Miklucho 

 Maclay's coast neighbours had nothing of the kind. In 

 some of the villages he saw long flat sticks, about a yard 



