io6 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



father, whose name he mentioned, but the game did 

 not interest him and my researches came to an end. 



Even the apparently simple matter of enquiring 

 the names of places is not so easy as one would think. 

 When the first party went up the Mimika to Parimau 

 they pointed to the huts and asked what the village 

 was called ; the answer given was *' Tupue," meaning 

 I believe, the name of the family who lived in the huts 

 pointed at. For several months we called the place 

 Tupu6, and the name appeared in various disguises 

 in the English newspapers. When I was at Parimau 

 in July, it occurred to me to doubt the name of Tupue, 

 which we never heard the natives use, so I questioned 

 a man elaborately. Pointing in the direction of Waka- 

 timi, I said in his language : " Many houses, Wakatimi," 

 and he nodded assent ; then pointing in the direction 

 of another village that we had visited I said : " Many 

 houses, Imah," to which he agreed ; then I said, 

 " Many houses," and pointed towards Parimau. This 

 performance was repeated three times before he under- 

 stood my intention and supphed the word " Parimau," 

 and then he shouted the whole story across the river 

 to the people in the village who received it with shouts 

 of laughter, and well they might. It was as if a 

 foreigner, who had been living for six months in a place 

 which he was accustomed to call Smith, enquired again 

 one day what its name was and found that it was 

 London. 



The language spoken by the people of Mimika is by 

 no means unpleasant to listen to, and with the customary 

 sing-song intonation it would be almost musical, if it 



