280 NEW GUINEA. [chap. 



gather there to chat and busy themselves over their domestic duties ; 

 the other for the men and boys. A broad alley- way, which serves 

 as a sleeping-place for strangers, divides the building in half, and 

 from it open out the rooms, like the cabins in a steamer. 



If my reader were to enter one of these apartments he 

 would have no wish to accept the hospitality of a Papuan host. 

 It is unlighted probably, except for some accidental gap in the 

 dilapidated wall, and the smoke of the fire — which is placed on a 

 large flat stone — finds its way through the roof as best it can. The 

 furniture is not extensive. A wooden drum, a few mats, some fish- 

 spears, an abundance of bows and arrows, some native-made pots 

 and wooden bowls, and a couple of admirably carved head-rests or 

 pillows would be in nine cases out of ten a full inventory. The 

 wants of a Papuan are few. The heavy tropical rain must stream 

 through the ill-kept roof, but he does not mind, for there is 

 no carpet to damage, and the water has but little more difficulty in 

 finding its way into the sea beneath. He is apparently quite 

 satisfied as long as the holes in the floor are not so large as to 

 permit of his disappearing in like fashion in his sleep. 



One article of furniture there is which is found in every room 

 — the koroivaar, a carved wooden image a foot or so in height, the 

 hands generally represented as resting on a shield, which, like 

 many of the Papuan carvings, is often of very good design. These 

 are not idols, as they have been represented to be by some 

 travellers,^ but the media by which the living hold communication 

 with, and are kept in memory of, the dead. If any individual die 

 a koroivaar is immediately constructed, for unprovided with an 

 earthly habitation his spirit could not rest. On the commencement 

 of the carving a feast is held, and as each portion of the image is 

 completed a dance commemorates the occasion. When finished 



^ The rarity of idols — I use the word in its English and not in its classical meaning 

 — must strike every one who has been brought much in contact with savage tribes. 

 In almost every case the images are merely representations of the deity worshipped, 

 like our own crucifixes, and are not supposed in themselves to be possessed of any 

 supernatural power. 



