WITH THE SURVEY PARTY 75 



tribes, who live at the foot of the Miirchison Range. They 

 are quite unciviHsed pagan cannibals. Some of the Yergum, 

 whose land stretches almost to Wase, show traces of civilisa- 

 tion, but there is little doubt that the greater part of even 

 these are cannibals whenever the chance occurs. 



The Gurkaua live among the hills which bear their name, 

 and the Montoil in curious groups of hamlets scattered 

 round the foot of Mount Madong. The Yergum dwell to 

 the extreme east, some at the foot, and some high up on the 

 Range. The two latter tribes live, as a general rule, in sets 

 of hamlets, a typical one of w^hich would consist on an 

 average of about sixteen circular mud huts, each about 6 ft. 

 broad with a thatched roof and perhaps half the number of 

 similar smaller huts used as granaries. The huts of a hamlet 

 are all more or less joined together and closely surrounded 

 by a stockade. Five to twenty of these hamlets scattered 

 over about half a square mile would form one village. Most 

 hamlets contain one family with its different branches. The 

 early state of their civilisation is shown by the fact that 

 they have not yet evolved as far as the village stage. Each 

 hamlet is against every other, each village against the next, 

 each tribe against its neighbour — one might almost say that 

 the hand of every man is against every other man, as was 

 shown by several very revolting murders which took place 

 during our stay. On one occasion we came across a tragedy 

 in the bush — an old man and two others killed and the blood 

 not yet dry. To tribes who have been brought up under 

 those conditions of relentless warfare in which every one preys 

 on those weaker than himself, a sharp lesson is at first needed, 

 but they soon find out that if the white man prevents them 



