THE PAPUAN WOMEN 



191 



knives and hatchets, which they had gained by barter. 

 Their boats were made of single logs, carefully dug out 

 and shaped; many of them had outriggers to steady 

 them when in rough water. 



While I sat there, a boy came up with three green 

 cocoa-nuts, which he gave me for a few red beads. 

 When the nut is green, it is filled with a sweet, refresh- 

 ing milk (very 

 unlike the ran- 

 cid fluid that 

 goes by that 

 name in the 

 dried nut), and 

 the little meat 

 it contains is 

 soft and custard- 

 like. I know of nothing so nice, on a warm day, as 

 a drink of this milk. 



The Papuan women are some of them fine-featured, 

 and many of the little children are really handsome. 

 When they get old, they are plain enough ; and some 

 of the old crones who sit in the sun, kneading clay, 

 or beating balls of it into shapely pots or dishes, their 

 heads shaven with fragments of bottle glass, and every 

 bone of their emaciated bodies showing through their 

 wrinkled skins are pictures of ugliness. 



They seemed to be a merry, laughter-loving people, 

 fond of games and jokes, very talkative, neat, and 



MAKING POTS. 



