LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES 103 



side of the MacCluer Gulf, but though they spent two 

 years there and attempts were made to teach them 

 Malay, in 1910 the extent of their knowledge of the 

 language was the two words Tida, tnan (No, master). 



It is unfortunate that there is no common language 

 along the S. coast, nor even a language wdth w^ords 

 common to all the dialects in use. We were visited 

 on one occasion by the Dutch Assistant Resident 

 from Fak-fak ; the native interpreter \\\\o came with 

 him, and who knew all the native dialects of the Fak-fak 

 district, could not understand one word of the Mimika 

 language. On another occasion some natives from 

 Mimika were taken down by steamer to Merauke, the 

 Government post in S.W. New Guinea, not far from 

 the boundary of British Papua, and there they found 

 the language of the natives quite unintelligible to them. 



So we found ourselves confronted with the task of 

 learning a language with neither grammar, dictionary 

 nor interpreter. This may not seem to be an in- 

 superable difficulty, nor is it perhaps where Europeans 

 and educated people are concerned, but with Papuans 

 it is a very different problem. The first thing to do 

 — and very few of them would even grasp the idea — is 

 to make them understand that you wish to learn their 

 words. You may point at an object and look in- 

 telligent and expectant, but they are slow to take your 

 meaning, and they soon tire of giving information. 

 The facial expression, which amongst us conveys even 

 to a deaf man an interrogation, means nothing to them, 

 nor has the sideways shake of the head a negative 

 meaning to Papuans. 



