THE NATIVE DOGS 



127 



of sago, A remarkable peculiarity about them is that 

 they never bark, but they make up for this defect by 

 their extraordinary power of howling. Sometimes in 

 broad da3'light, if there was no wind, but more often 

 on still fine nights, a party of dogs would sit together, 

 usually on the river bank, and utter a chorus of the 

 most piteous and blood-curdling howls. No amount 

 of stone-throwing or beating with sticks, freely adminis- 

 tered by their masters, had the smallest effect on them ; 

 they would only move away a few yards and begin 

 again, apparently carried away by an ecstasy of sorrow. 

 The natives value their dogs highly, as they well 

 may do, for they provide the whole of their meat supply, 

 and they use them to exchange for articles of which 

 they have great need. The people at Parimau have a 

 small piece of iron about the size of a chisel, used 

 for carving their canoes and paddles, for which the 

 enormous price of three dogs had been paid, so they 

 informed us, to the people of the Wakatimi. One 

 day one of our " boys " shot a dog, which had been 

 in the habit of stealing food from our camp. When 

 the natives knew that it was dead, all the people of the 

 village began to wail in the same manner as they do 

 when a person dies, and the owner of the dog smeared 

 himself with mud and mourned bitterly. No doubt 

 the display was somewhat exaggerated in the hope of 

 getting a compensation from us, but at the back of it 

 there was genuine emotion. 



Before leaving the subject of the food of the 

 Papuans and their means of obtaining it, a word must 

 be said on the question of cannibalism. It is popularly 



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