Fedruary 17, 1910] 



NA TURE 



459 



SOUTH SEA SAVAGES.' 



MR. H. \V. WALKER, in an account of his 

 wandering's among tlie savages of Fiji, tlie 

 Pliilippines, Papua, and Borneo, has not set himself 

 the tasli of dealing scientifically with ethnographical 

 details. He has aimed rather at giving a general 

 impression of native life and environment in some 

 of the more out-of-the-way corners of the island 

 world. In this aim he has admirably succeeded, and 

 his book affords a vivid picture of the people and 

 regions which he has endea- 

 voured to describe. 



The first chapters recount a 

 visit to Ratu Lala, chief of the 

 Fijian island of Taviuni. Here, 

 under the thin veneer of civilisa- 

 tion produced by two years' 

 schooling at Sydney, was found 

 a man at heart a savage, who 

 could boast of how he treated his 

 jester as a fish and played him 

 with hoolv and line, or pegged a 

 woman on an ant-hill, smearing 

 her with honey to make the ants 

 bite. 



In this and the following chap- 

 ter on the ex-cannibals of Na 

 Viti Levu, "who would still like 

 to eat man if they got the 

 chance," Mr. Walker describes 

 Fijian dwellings, customs, and 

 war ceremonies. 



In the Philippines the author 

 visited Pampanga, in North 

 Luzon. In the mountains near 

 Florida Blanca he stayed with 

 some friendly Negritos, of whose 

 appearance, dress, ornaments, 

 and weapons he gives an inter- 

 esting account. While staying 

 here Mr. Walker heard of a 

 strange people called , Buquils, 

 who lived further in the moun- 

 tains, and were reported to bi- 

 Negritos with long smooth hair. 

 The women were said to have 

 beards. Mr. Walker made a 

 difficult mountain journey with 

 his Negrito friends to try to 

 find these people. When almost in 

 touch witf) the Buquils, however, 

 the Negritos refused to proceed 

 further until they had suffi- 

 cient fighters to avenge the kill- 

 ing of their fellow-tribesmen who 

 had ventured into the Buquil 

 country. Mr. Walker had to 

 catch his steamer, and could not 

 wait for them. 



Mr. Walker next describes his 

 adventures during a Government 



punitive expedition against the a Ncgntu 1 mniiy. i 



Dobodura tribe in North-east 



British Papua. Although on the warpath, the 

 author was not unmindful of natural scenes, and 

 gives some interesting notes on plants, birds, and 

 forest scenery. Mankind was less pleasant, and 

 as the party passed along they saw " in each 

 village plenty of human skulls and long sticks with 

 human jawbones hanging upon them." A brisk 

 description is given of the skirmishes and night 



attack. Once the author was separated from his 

 party, and had some lively anticipations of taking a 

 too prominent part in a cannibal feast. For the 

 Dobodura were cannibals of a very pronounced type, 

 and the author's headings and items in these chapters 

 are sug'gestive of a ghastly nightmare. " Pigs shot to 

 prevent them from being cooked alive. — Revolting 

 relics of cannibal feast. — Doboduras eat their enemies 

 alive. — Method of extracting the brains. — Man better 

 than pig. — Carriers ask leave to eat one of the slain. 

 — Horrible barbarities of the Doboduras. — L'npleasant 



1 "Wanderings am^ng South Se: 

 Philippines." Dy H. Wilfrid Walker, 

 and Co., 1909.) Price ys. 6d. net. 



Savages and in Bon 

 Pp. xvi + 254. (Londo 



o and the 

 ; Witherby 



2103, VOL. 82] 



■in ■ \\aii,i,,m4~ .:mjng h.utli -c-i Ssvages," by H. Wilfrid Walker. 



anticipations. — Two miners roasted aliv-e." Incident- 

 ally, in these chapters Mr. Walker bears witness to 

 the smartness, pluck, and good humour of the native 

 Papuan police. In the same region of Papua, the 

 author, with Messrs. Monckton and Acland, dis- 

 covered a peculiar tribe of fiat-footed lake-dwellers, 

 whom report had credited with webbed feet like a 

 duck. There was some truth in the report, and Mr. 

 Walker gives a description of the people and an 

 account of their customs quoted from Sir F. Winter. 

 The next chapters relate to the head-hunting Sea 



