XII.] A PAPUAN FORGE. '2Sb 



alas ! for the poor mother — was sinking slowly but surely from an 

 incurable malady. We were glad to learn that Mrs. Bmk was 

 soon to return to Europe, her husband and Mr. Van Balen having 

 been ordered to Eon and Meoswaar, two islands at the head of 

 Geelvink Bay where a mission has been established since 1867.-^ 



Some of the Dorei Bay natives are acquainted with the art of 

 working in iron. They have learnt it from the Gebi islanders, but 

 the knowledge remains confined to one or two families only. These 

 smiths do not eat pigs' flesh ; not that they are Mohammedans, but 

 purely from the superstitious belief that the transgression of this 

 rule would affect the goodness of their work. Behind Monokware 

 we one day came upon one of their forges. The bellows were 

 composed of two upright bamboo tubes, about a yard high and five 

 inches in diameter. In these worked two valved pistons tightly 

 packed with cassowary feathers, and at the bottom of the cyhnders 

 two nozzles led Y-fashion into one, which, in order to prevent its 

 being charred by the heat, was passed through a hollow stone. A 

 little boy sat on a high bench, and grasping a piston rod in each 

 hand, worked them alternately. The whole apparatus (which was 

 of course of Malayan, not Papuan, origin) was almost identical with 

 that I have seen employed in the interior of Africa, and I believe 

 that it is also found in South America. 



Pottery-making is a more widely-known art ; and many of the 

 women — for the wives and female slaves alone engage m this work 

 — are tolerably clever at it. Vessels of excellent shape are often 

 to be seen, but there is no great variety, and cooking-pots and bowls,, 

 all of which are unglazed, seem to be the chief articles made. The 

 only other manufactures are plaited bags or baskets of grass fibre 

 which are often stained with bright colours, and silver bangles, 

 beaten out of Dutch dollars obtained from the Malay traders. 



While we were in Dorei Bay a feast was held one night in one 



1 There is reported to be a boiling spring on the island of Meoswaar, but as far 

 as is known there are no evidences of recent volcanic action in the neighbourhood, 

 or indeed in any part of North-west New Guinea. 



