NEW HANOVER. 701 



channels, one of the islands when seen from the west presenting a symmetrical appear- 

 ance with a flat-topped mountain in the centre, which has suggestefl the appropriate 

 name of Mausoleum Island. 



The opening at the top of the New Hanover and Mausoleum Island canoes was 

 very narrow, the cavity of the canoe widening out inside ; the outrigger was adorned 

 ^vith pigs' tails. Some of the natives had a wild hunted expression in theii' eyes 

 such as I had not seen elsewhere ; one fellow was decorated with a lurid red pigment 

 on chest, shoulders, back and thighs. Whether this was for mere display or to produce 

 a terrifying effect, I do not know. On the upright pole of the outriggers there was 

 occasionally a Nautilus shell, no doubt placed there as an object of beauty, the natives 

 being very susceptible to singularity of form, although the shell is also used for the 

 more commonplace function of baling out the canoes. Many of the canoes only came 

 within shouting distance, their crews being doubtless smitten by their consciences on 

 account of former delinquencies and afraid to come alongside. Higher up along the 

 coast of New Hanover we went ashore and engaged the bulk of the boys, the natives 

 being used to the recruiting business. 



The parts visited on this occasion included the whole south-west of New Hanover 

 and along the north coast round Cape Charlotte as far as the island of Kung, one of 

 the North Islands, where there was a trader's station. On the return journey we passed 

 through Steffen Strait as far as the island of Nusa and Cape Nowon on the main- 

 land of New Ireland. 



The men of New Hanover go about in a state of nature, carrying wooden spears either 

 singly or in sheaves. Some of them wear armlets of closely woven fibre which sometimes 

 become so tight, with increasing age, as to be almost concealed below the neighbouring folds 

 of flesh. They also wear spindle-shaped, well-fashioned rods of shell passed through the 

 nasal septum, just as in New Britain some of the better class of bushmen employ quills from 

 the cassowary {Gusuarius hennettii) as nose-sticks. Occasionally one sees a man wearing 

 a large white disc cut out of the giant clam Tridacna and suspended by a string round 

 the neck, forming a kind of medallion varying from two or three to five or six inches in 

 diameter. This ornament (called "kapkap") is more frequently met with in New Ireland 

 and is generally much improved by the addition of a circular lamina of tortoise-shell 

 beautifully fi-etted, the whole forming an artistic composition, the tortoise-shell plate being 

 thrown into elegant relief by the white background furnished by the Tridacna shell-disc. 



Armlets made by cutting out segments from large froc/tzts-shells are counuonly 

 worn by well-to-do women throughout the Bismarck Archipelago. But the woven 

 armlets mentioned above serve a double purpose, decorative and utilitarian, since all 

 kinds of things, such as a pipe, ;i stick of tobacco, ornamental leaves and so forth can 

 be carried thrust in between the ring and the flesh. 



The women of New Hanover and neighbouring islands wear very curious liats 

 made of pandanus leaves, called " kabil," which they are unwilling to remove in the 

 presence of men. When I first saw women i-unning along the shore to meet the boat, 

 I was greatly fascinated by this singular head-gear which somewhat resembles a bishop's 

 mitre. The scenery in New Hanover is very attractive and is not rendered less so by 

 the native taro plantations in the form of terraces on the sides of the well-wooded hills, 



92—2 



