XX NEW GUINEA AND ITS INHABITANTS 443 



Papuans is an important ethnological feature, distinguish- 

 ing them from all the peoples by whom they are imme- 

 diately surrounded and connecting them, as do their 

 physical peculiarities, with an ancient widespread negroid 

 type. 



In their knowledge and practice of agriculture the 

 Papuans show themselves to be far superior to the Austra- 

 lians, and fully the equals of the Polynesian races. They 

 grow cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit, and cultivate various 

 kinds of yam, sweet-potato, bananas, and sugar-cane. 

 Though possessing, for the most part, only stone axes, 

 they clear the forest to make their plantations, which 

 they carefully fence round to keep out the wild pigs. 

 Looking at these clearings, at their houses, their canoes, 

 their implements, weapons, and ornaments often elabo- 

 rately carved, we must, as Dr. Maclay remarks, be struck 

 with astonishment at the great patience and skill dis- 

 played by these savages. Their chief implement, the axe, 

 consists of a hard grey, green, or white stone, made smooth 

 and sharp by long grinding and polishing. A piece of 

 the stem of a tree which has a branch passing off at an 

 angle, something like the figure 7, is hewn off, and upon 

 the branch, Avhich has been cut off short and shaven at 

 the top, the stone is laid horizontally, and bound fast with 

 split rattans or tough bark. Such an instrument requires 

 to be used with great skill, only to be attained by prac- 

 tice, or the stone will be broken without producing any 

 result. These savages can, however, with a stone axe 

 having a cutting edge only two inches broad, fell a tree- 

 trunk of twenty inches diameter, or carve really fine 

 figures on a post or spear. Each adult man possesses one 

 such axe, but in every village there are usually one or two 

 larger two-handed axes, which are about three inches 

 broad. These are considered exceedingly valuable, and 

 are only used for cutting large trees for canoes or other 

 important work. Fragments of flint and shells are used 

 for finishing carved work and cutting the ornamental 

 patterns on bamboo boxes, as well as for making combs, 

 spoons, arrows, and other small articles. For cutting 

 meat and vegetables a kind of chisel of bone and knives 



