134 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



" Yesterday the natives gave us an excellent show. 

 For some days previously natives had been arriving 

 from distant parts until the small village of 40 huts 

 contained 400 people, and it was evident from the 

 tomtomming and other signs that something of im- 

 portance was about to take place. On the night of 

 the 3rd inst. they lit a big bonfire, and all night long 

 they were howling and yeUing as if to drive away evil 

 spirits. Soon after daybreak they came over to fetch 

 us, and, expecting something unusual, I slipped a film 

 into my cinematograph camera and went over. They 

 gave me every opportunity of obtaining a good 

 picture, keeping an open space for me in the best 

 positions. First of all the women, draped in leaves, 

 slowly walked down the beach, driving two full- 

 grown boars in front of them, and then disappeared 

 in the jungle. About 150 men with faces painted 

 and heads and spears decorated with feathers, formed 

 up in three sides of a square, one end of which was 

 occupied by a band of tomtoms. A slow advance 

 on the village then commenced, the men shouting 

 in chorus and the women dancing on the outskirts. 

 The centre of the square was occupied by single 

 individuals, who, following each other in quick 

 succession, gave a warlike display, finally shooting 

 arrows far over the trees. 



" The next scene took place around a large sloping 

 erection which we soon found was an altar, on ^^'hich 

 the two boars were about to be sacrificed. The 

 women and boars who had disappeared into the 

 forest now marched from the jungle at the far end of 



