635 



in possession of food or objects of common use readily gives 

 them away temporarily, and, in the majority of cases, even 

 permanently ; so also a man in possession of any privileges will 

 freely share them with others. On the other hand, it must 

 be emphatically stated that there w^as no "communism" in the 

 sense of all men having equal, free, and unconditional access 

 to all goods and privileges. From many details previously 

 given the reader will be aware, both that objects of common 

 use, whether food or implements or what not, did belong to 

 certain men, who had the right to give them away, and also 

 that certain privileges, like participation in a hunt or in a 

 fishing expedition, or a passage on a canoe, had to be granted 

 by the ''owner," or master, of the given privilege, though 

 these were granted very easily indeed. 



And this right to give away things, to grant access to 

 privileges, was undoubtedly highly valued by the natives. At 

 a big hunt, with grass burning, in which I took part, inland 

 of Port Moresby, on the Laroge River (usually but incorrectly 

 called Ta(16Jxi by Europeans), a curious ceremony took place. 

 In the morning, before daybreak, all the men in the camp 

 assembled, and one man, the traditional "owner" of the privi- 

 lege of communal net hunting and grass burning on that tract 

 of country, pronounced in a loud voice certain ceremonial 

 words in a Koita language, which were answered by the loud 

 acclamation of all the men. I was told afterwards by Ahuia — 

 an excellent informant — that the trend of the harangue was 

 simply : — ''My great grandfather and my grandfather and 

 my father used to make big hunting on these grounds. Now 

 I give the order for the hunt. We will hunt to-day." I did 

 not take notes of the original text in Koita, but AlnUa's 

 information is quite reliable, even when he gives a free version. 

 I was also told by him that such a formal opening of a hunt 

 was absolutely essential for its legal constitution. Should any 

 group of the natives burn grass and hunt that tract of country 

 without having obtained such a formal consent from the master 

 — for which the master's presence was, of course, also neces- 

 sary — the master's clan would seriously resent such breach of 

 etiqiiefte, and, in the olden days, even fights might have 

 resulted from it. 



I am quoting this incident, which I observed among the 

 Koita, because I w^as told in Mailu that a similar state of 

 things obtained there, though I failed to record any of the 

 details, and I had no opportunities of observing any facts of 

 that type. The incident quoted is quite characteristic of the 

 point at issue. The natives indeed have a keen sense of clan 

 privilege, or village community privilege, which as a rule is 

 vested in one man — the headman of the village or of the clan. 



