144 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



both in front and at the back six other smaller poles 

 grotesquely carved to represent fish and reptiles and 

 hideous human heads. The front of the house was open, 

 and when you had climbed up the supporting poles and 

 had stepped over a low fence you found yourself in a 

 spacious hall with a floor well made of sheets of bark, 

 which sloped up gradually from front to back. Along 

 either side at regular intervals on the floor were sand 

 fireplaces and above these were wooden racks, from 

 which it was evident that something was hung to be 

 cooked. Round the walls on all sides was a strip of 

 carved and painted wood, and exactly in the middle 

 of the hall, fixed to the floor and the roof were two 

 posts about 3 feet apart and tied between them, at 

 about half the height of a man, was an elaborately 

 carved and painted board about twelve inches wide. 

 In the middle of this board was carved the eye, which 

 is a familiar feature of the ornamental carving on the 

 canoes and drums, and it appeared that this eye is the 

 centre of the ceremonies which take place in the house. 



So far as I could understand from the description of 

 the natives who accompanied me in my visit to the 

 house, the people, both men and women, who take 

 part in the ceremony, dance slowly upwards from the 

 front of the house singing as they go, and when they 

 reach the carved board each one in turn touches the 

 eye, while all the people shout together. But what the 

 object of the whole performance is and what the people 

 cook and eat, are questions to which I was unable to 

 find an answer. 



I have had occasion above to mention the artistic 



