286 



NEIF GUINEA. 



[chap. 



of the houses at Sarauiidibu. Among the Papuans suiging and 

 dancing are favourite amusements, and ahnost any event, joyful or 

 sorrowful, important or trivial, serves as an excuse to indulge in 

 them. The great feasts are for the completion of a korowaar, or 



for the successive steps in the carving 

 of one of the great images of the idol- 

 house — the Mon or ancestors. In these 

 cases dancing and singing are kept up 

 the whole night through for se^'eral 

 successive days— the performers rest- 

 ing during the day and recommencing 

 at sunset. We had no opportunity of 

 seeing a feast of this nature, but Mr. 

 Van Hasselt told us that a barn is 

 often specially built on shore for the 

 purpose. The men sit apart from the 

 women, much decorated with coloured 

 leaves and flowers of the scarlet 

 hibiscus, which are tucked under their 

 armlets and necklaces, and affixed to 

 their mop-like hair by bamboo hair- 

 pins. The masters of the ceremony are the Maiiibris or "champions" 

 — men who have distinguished themselves in the ever-recurring 

 intertribal wars. Sago, sagueir, tobacco, and gambler are provided, 

 and the entertainment only ceases with the dawn. The singing is 

 monotonous in the extreme, and the wooden drums are beaten 

 without cessation. These, combined with the dancing, which is so 

 \'iolent as nearly to shake the house down, produce a terrific noise 

 — all the more pleasing to a Papuan, as he knows it to be most 

 effective in guarding him from the evil influence of the Manuen. 

 In the lesser feasts there is no dancing, the entertainment being 

 confined to singing, with the usual drum accompaniment. 



Whatever may be the case in Eastern New G-uinea, the woman 

 is little more than the slave of the man among the Nufoor Papuans. 



KOROWAAR. 



