282 NEJF GUINEA. [chap. 



— events of which the missionaries have naturally not been slow to 

 take advantage, for they have extorted a promise that, should a like 

 fate befall the new idol-house wliich was being constructed at 

 Monokwar^ at the time of our "^asit, no attempt at rebuilding 

 it for the third time would be made. A single pile of the old 

 temple was alone standing when we examined the spot — a gigantic 

 human figure entwined by a snake. We learnt from Mr. Bink that 

 all the piles were of like nature, and that the temple was thus 

 supported by a series of aquatic Caryatides, alternately male and 

 female.^ Within were other carved w^ooden figures of much the 

 same kind — grotesque and indecent — intended to represent the 

 ancestors of the Nufoor tribe, and known as the 3fon or "first 

 peoj)le." 



The construction of these Bum-slam and the carving necessary 

 for the piles is, as may be imagined, an affair of some time, and the 

 images had not all been finished when we were at Dorei. At a 

 house in the village of Eode we found two lying in the centre 

 passage, — huge tree-trunks thirty or forty feet in length carved in 

 representation of a male and a female figure. Like the solitary 

 statue to wliich I have just alluded, the latter had a snake encu'cling 

 her neck, its head lying upon her breast. This was Gobini, a 

 mythological character, whose history w^e learnt from one of the 

 natives standmg by. Young and beautiful, her hand was sought in 

 marriage by many suitors, but in vain. One day, however, per- 

 mitting a snake to share her couch, she became pregnant, and was 

 driven from home by her parents. She resolved to seek her fortune 

 in distant lands, and embarking in a small prau set sail, with Nori 

 the snake on the look-out in the bows, bearing Ambepon, at the 

 head of Geelvmk Bay, Gobini perceived a large oyster with a pearl 

 in it at the bottom of the sea, and told Xori to jump overboard 

 and get it. Yielding to her wish he did so, but paid for his rash- 

 ness with his life, for the oyster, closing his shell, caught the snake 



^ Stabat ex utraque parte templi, ab aditu paullo distans, simulacrum ingens 

 maris feminseque in ipso coitu junctorum. 



