304 NEJF GUINEA. [chap. 



be trusted. Kawari was in a comic state of alarm durinj^- our stay 

 lest we should come to some harm while out shooting, but on 

 our first acquaiutauce the natives appeared good-humoured enough, 

 and were soon perched in numbers on the bulwarks, shouting and 

 yelling at the top of their voices and making such a noise as can 

 only be produced by Papuans, In circumstances such as these 

 " Dick " was of the gTcatest use to us, for he alone was able to clear 

 our decks. His size and blackness, his gleammg wliite teeth, and, 

 above all, his deep bark, — for the native dogs apparently do not 

 bark, — effectually frightened our invaders, and they scattered like 

 a flock of sheep at his approach, tumljling overboard or running up 

 the rigging in thek frantic endeavours to escape. Xo women were 

 to be seen for the first day or two of our \'isit, and little or nothing 

 in the way of barter was brought oft'. Our stores of cloth and 

 Turkey red did not tempt them in the least, and almost the only 

 things we found marketable were Chinese buttons and silver 

 dollars — the latter being in great request for the purpose of making 

 bangles. Yet in spite of the absence of demand for garments, the 

 clothing was even more scanty than that worn by the Arfak people, 

 and some of the younger men were guiltless of a single rag. At 

 Yamna, a village on the mainland farther to the east, both sexes, 

 we were told, go entirely naked. 



The natives wore the usual long bamboo comb projecting over 

 the forehead, ornamented with feathers of the white cockatoo or 

 Edectiis thrust vertically into the handle. I had noticed that in 

 some cases the most conspicuous feather was not an entire shaft, 

 but built up, as it were, of two or more different pieces, and on in- 

 quiring the reason one mornmg from a formidable-looking wanior 

 who was perched upon our bulwarks, I learnt that each piece 

 signified that the owner had disposed of an enemy. The coast 

 people, it appears, are always at war with the interior tribes, who 

 from time to time come down from the mountains and make raids, 

 in which the w^omen and children are carried oif as slaves. One 

 of these descents had taken place only a short time before, and 



