590 Py REPORT—1899, 
villages, whose languages are totally distinct from that of the Motu both in structure 
and vocabulary. A language (Koiari) similar to the Koitapu was found to 
prevail in the district inland from Port Moresby. 
At Port Moresby I also obtained from some Cloudy Bay natives specimens of 
their language, which, like those of Koitapu and Koiari, approaches the Australian 
type, but has nothing in common with the Melanesian. 
At Bulaa (Hula), Hood Peninsula, the structure of the dialects of Bulaa, 
Keapara (Kerepunu), and Galoma were the subject of conversations with Kima, 
the intelligent chief of Hula. These dialects are related to the Motu, and, like 
it, are in grammar and yocabulary very closely akin to the languages of the 
Melanesian Islands. - 
At Saguana in Kiwai Island in the Fly River Delta, I took advantage of a 
fortnight’s stay to make a first investigation into Kiwai and Mowata grammar. 
The language is very difficult, with exceedingly complex forms. It shows some 
ited of connection with the speech of the Eastern Islanders of the Torres 
traits. 
IV. Seclusion of Girls at Mabuiag, Torres Straits. 
By C. G. SELIGMANN. 
When the signs of puberty appear, a circle of bushes is made in a dark corner 
of the girl’s parents’ house. The girl, now called Kerngi gasaman, is fully decked 
with cross shoulder-belts of young cocoanut leaf, with leglets just below the knee, 
with anklets, with petticoat, with chaplet round head, with armlets of cocoanut 
with cut draceenas in them ; with shell ornaments hung on front and back of chest, 
and with nautilus shell ornaments in her ears, She squats in the centre of the 
bushes, which are piled so high round her that only her head is visible. This 
lasts for three months, the bushes being changed nightly, at which time the 
girl is allowed to slip out of the hut. She is attended by one or two old women, 
the girl’s maternal aunts, who are especially appointed to look after her. These 
women are called Mowai by the girl; one of them cooks food for the girl at a 
special fire in the bush. The girl may not feed herself or handle her food, it being 
put into her mouth by her attendant women. No man—not even the girl’s 
father—may come into the house; if he saw his daughter during this time he 
would certainly have bad luck with his fishing, and probably smash his canoe the 
first time he went out. The girl may not eat in the breeding season turtle or 
turtle eggs; no vegetable food is forbidden. The sun may not shine on her; ‘ he 
can’t see daytime, he stop inside dark,’ said my informant. At the end of three 
months a girl is carried to the fresh-water creek by her Mowat, she hanging on to 
their shoulders so that not even her feet touch the ground, the women of the tribe 
forming a ring round the girl and Movwaz, thus escorting her to the creek. Her 
ornaments are removed, and the Mowai with their burden stagger into the creek, 
where the girl is immersed, all the women joining in splashing water over the 
three. On coming out of the water, one of the Mowat makes a heap of grass for 
her charge to squat on, while the other runs to the reef and catches a small crab. 
She tears off its claws, and with these she runs back to the creek, where a fire has 
meanwhile been made, at which the claws are roasted. The girl is then fed on 
these by the Mowat. She is then freshly decorated, and the whole party marches 
back to the village in one rank, the girl being in the centre, with the Mowaz at her 
side, each of them holding one of the girl’s wrists. The husbands of the Mowat, 
called by the girl Waduam, receive her, and lead her into the house of one of 
them, where all eat food, the girl being now allowed to feed herself in the usual 
manner. The rest of the community have meanwhile prepared and eaten a feast, 
and a dance is held, in which the girl takes a prominent part, her two Waduam 
dancing, one on each side of her. When the dance is finished the Mowat lead the 
girl into their house and strip her of her ornaments, They then lead her hack to 
her parents’ house. 
