278 THE TROPICAL WORLD - 



favourable circumstances. He combines a remarkable taste and 

 skill in the ornamenting of his furniture with an utter disregard 

 of all order and convenience in his household arrangements. 

 He has no chair or bench to sit upon, does not know the use of 

 a brush, and his dress, such as it is, consists of dirty bark or rags. 

 He never takes the trouble to clear the path which he daily 

 treads, of overhanging branches or prickly thorns. In many 

 parts his nourishment consists almost entirely of roots and 

 vegetables ; fish and game being only occasional luxuries ; and 

 in consequence both of his coarse food and his filthy habits, he 

 is very liable to various cutaneous diseases. The children, 

 particularly, have often a miserable look, and are covered over 

 their whole body with eruptions and sores. If these people are 

 not savages, where are we to look for them ? And yet these 

 same savages have a decided taste for the fine arts, and employ 

 their leisure hours in executing ornamental works, the neatness 

 and elegance of which would often do honour to our schools of 

 design. 



They cover the outside of their houses with rude but 

 characteristic figures, and their canoes, and other implements 

 and furniture are decorated with elaborate carvings in various 

 patterns ; a custom very seldom met with among the Malayan 

 tribes. 



But the most striking instance of Papuan industry, and the 

 one which seems most at variance with their utter barbarism 

 in almost every other respect, is shown in the construction of the 

 immense houses in New Guinea which strike the stranger with 

 astonishment. They are upwards of 300 feet long, about 30 

 feet in width, and 16 or 18 feet high in the centre, from which 

 the roof slopes down on either hand to the floor ; their inside 

 looks just like a great tunnel. Down each side are a row of 

 cabins with walls of bamboo and neatly made doors. Inside 

 these cabins are low frames covered with mats, apparently bed- 

 places, and overhead are shelves and pegs for bows and arrows, 

 baskets, stone axes, and other utensils. These immense 

 structures rest on a number of posts, like the ancient lacustrine 

 habitations of Switzerland, so that their floor is raised from the 

 muddy ground about six feet. The roof, formed of an arched 

 framework of bamboo, is covered with a perfectly waterproof 

 thatch of sago-palm leaves. The centre of the house for about a 



