TALILI BAY. 715 



taro. I had anchored on the reef at Nanuk for the night, it being high water, and 

 intended to sleep on the boat while my boys lighted a fire and made themselves 

 comfortable on the beach, cooking taro for themselves and for me. During the night 

 it rained and thundered, and thinking to console myself with a taro I groped in the 

 dark amongst the litter of ropes and gear, picked up one of these excellent fruits of 

 the earth and made a lusty bite into it. It proved to be uncooked but I recovered 

 from the dire effects within the twenty-four hours. 



In the middle of August a note was brought to me from Mr Reuben Buckley, 

 a trader quartered in the Malagunan district quite at the other end of Blanche Bay, 

 saying that Nautilus was also found off the north coast of the Gazelle Peninsula. 

 Accordingly the next day I paddled over to Malagunan and was conducted overland 

 to a place called Matakabang on the north coast, the road between these two villages 

 being flanked on the east by the heights of the North Daughter. From Matakabang 

 we pulled across to a district at the head of Talili Bay called Unakamkambi, where 

 there was another trading station tenanted by Mr MacNicoll. Here I made arrangements 

 for traps to be set for Nautilus and next day returned to Blanche Bay to raise up 

 some coral blocks which I had previously sunk in a selected spot in about 80 fathoms. 

 On examining the coral trees I found numbers of the large Ostracod crustacean which 

 has been described by Mr Stebbing under the name Asterope arthuri, but no signs 

 of Nautilus. 



The next morning I set sail for Unakamkambi, rounding Praed Point and Cape 

 Stephens. I spent the best part of a month at this place, having found the conditions 

 for pursuing my search for the young of Nautilus almost as favourable in the south-east 

 season in Talili Bay as they were in Blanche Bay, but not more so ; in the north-west 

 season I think it would be impossible to operate in Talili Bay. Near the eastern limit 

 of Talili Bay there was a Catholic Mission station, administered by Pere Bley, and at the 

 western point a Wesleyan Mission station, presided over by Rev. J. A. Crump, at the 

 village of Kabakada adjoining Unakamkambi. 



I have made occasional reference to certain New Britain usages according as I had 

 opportunity to observe or to take part in them, and it is impossible to leave this island 

 without a word concerning two of its most characteristic and well-known institutions, the 

 Dukduk and the Tubuan. They are cognate organisations ordained for the glorification 

 of departed chiefs and to promote the circulation of diwara, although this brief statement 

 does not exhaust the sum of their functions. It appears that the Tubuan is supposed to 

 die periodically and to be born again. I once witnessed a most interesting representation 

 of the resurrection of the Tubuan, which took place opposite to my house at Barawon 

 near the village ruled over by an important chief named To-kinkin. 



At midnight, in the month of July (1895) a couple of Tubuans from Matupi. escorted 

 by a fleet of forty or fifty canoes, arrived at To-kinkin's place. They had brought with 

 them a carved human emblem representing a personage whom they called To-ririg, 

 doubtless a great man of former days. This circumstance suggested to me the possibility 

 • of the dukduk and its subsidiary tubuan being a means by which the history of the 



w. vi. 94 



