553 



ixumela, and several others, the names of which I did not 

 record, that are eaten raw. 



Sarcotics. — As narcotics the natives use tobacco and areca 

 nut. A native tobacco was used before the advent of the 

 white man, but nowadays twisted trade tobacco — called uni- 

 versally in Papua Kulcu — is exclusively smoked, at any rate 

 by the coastal natives. They use the often-described method 

 of smoking through a bamboo pipe (Bduhtiu), which is pro- 

 vided with a small hole to hold a cigarette. The tobacco, 

 which is cut and kneaded, is rolled into cigarette form in a leaf, 

 of which there are several kinds, called Nd^'pera. The cigarette 

 is inserted in the hole, and by inhaling at the mouth end the 

 Baiihdu is filled with smoke. The smoker then removes the 

 cigarette and draws in the smoke through the hole in which 

 this has been inserted. 



As a rule one person — usually a young boy, and in any 

 <case the youngest member of the gathering — performs the 

 function of filling the tube with smoke and of handing it 

 round. Smoking is a social business, and whenever there is a 

 gathering of any kind a Bduhdu is essential. There are at 

 present scarcely any of the richly ornamented bamboo pipes in 

 Mailu, as they belong to other parts of the territory. I was 

 informed that the Mailu know how to ornament the BduhdUy 

 hut evidently they are either only poor experts in the art or 

 'else they do not care very much for it, as I do not remember 

 seeing a single carved or burned Bduhdu in Mailu, though 

 they are plentiful in some other villages. 



A social function analogous to that played by tobacco 

 smoking is that of betel chewing. The ingredients liere are : The 

 areca nut (V\^f'ni; in Motu, Buafau), the wood and bark of 

 betel pepper (in Motu, Popo), some leaves (betel leaves ?), 

 and lime. The latter is carried about in the lime crourds which 

 . form one of the most characteristic accessories of a New 

 Guinea native. The lime is used by stirring it up with, usually, 

 a spatula — a kind of wooden knife — or sometimes with a 

 pointed bone, from which the lime is licked off. Mailu 

 natives, however, do not manufacture either the gourds 

 or spatulas with any really artistic execution, though they 

 possess some of the well-known ebony carvings of the Northern 

 Massim which are used as spatulas. Not only are the spatulas 

 manufactured in the locality poor and without characteristic 

 features, but the Mailu, in contrast to their neighbours, the 

 Massim of Bciiahona and Svd'ii, do not really care for the 

 finer specimens. These two groups, though as a rule unable 

 to produce the fine carvings of the Trobriand islanders, import 

 and value them, and are very loath to part with them. 



