248 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



after we left there was a good deal of quarrelling and 

 fighting over the spoil. The wailing is a purely per- 

 functory politeness, but I think there were a few men 

 who were genuinely sorry to lose us. On the following 

 day a strong ebb-tide bore us quickly down to Waka- 

 timi and our navigations of the upper Mimika river 

 were at an end. 



In the meantime Rawling had made an interesting 

 exploration of the coast and of the river mouths to the 

 East of the Mimika. The motor boat, which had been 

 badly damaged some months earlier, had been repaired 

 by two Dutch pioneer soldiers and was more or less 

 sea-worthy. In a four days' trip he had entered the 

 Atuka river, or rather the Atuka mouth of the Ka- 

 mura river, a few miles up which he came to Atuka, a 

 large village of about six hundred huts surrounded 

 by coconut palms and tobacco plantations. Proceed- 

 ing up the river into the main Kamura river he went 

 on almost to the junction with the Wataikwa river, 

 thus filling in a large gap of unknown river. On his 

 way back he chose the left (East) branch and after 

 passing the village of Kamura, where the inhabitants 

 showed an inclination to plunder the boat, he came 

 to the lake-like estuary of the Kamura and Wania 

 rivers and entered the sea by a deep channel. It is 

 worth noting that the inhabitants of Atuka and Ka- 

 mura villages, many of whom visited us two or three 

 times at Wakatimi, are of a decidedly lower type (in 

 appearance) than the people of the Mimika district, 

 though the distance that separates them is only a few 

 miles. They have a fiercer and more brutal aspect 



