Vol. XIX, No. 8 



WASHINGTON 



August, 1908 



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FURTHER NOTES ON DUTCH NEW GUINEA 



By Thomas Barbour 



With photographs by the author 



IN the previous number the houses of 

 the Geelvink Bay region were de- 

 scribed. It remains now to pre- 

 sent notes on the houses of Djamna and 

 the villages in Humboldt Bay. 



The houses of the former region are 

 not over the water, but are set back in 

 the woods. They have high-pitched 

 roofs and are built of the midribs of 

 sago-palm leaves. These are set up side 

 by side and are held in place by rattan 

 lashings. The roofs are covered with 

 palm-leaf thatch, as usual. The only 

 means of entrance or exit is a single 

 square hole, often 10 feet from the 

 ground ; this is reached by a notched 

 pole, the usual substitute for a ladder, or 

 a large log set up slanting, through 

 which rattan loops pass at various levels. 

 These houses are dark, smoky, and 

 smelly, and as they were peopled by a 

 tribe who were decidedly "put out," or 

 offish, for some reason, while we were 

 with them, though they are usually quite 

 friendly, our notes are not detailed as to 

 their furnishings. 



In Humboldt Bay, on the frontier of 

 German New Guinea, we have one of 

 the most interesting and beautiful re- 

 gions imaginable. The bay runs back 

 from a wide mouth, its sides closing in 



after we have gone perhaps a mile and a 

 half. In this constricted part the view 

 into the inner bay is almost completely 

 cut off by the little wooded islet of Metu 

 Debi. On the innermost sheet of water, 

 called the Jotefa Bay, are several vil- 

 lages, as there are also on two arms 

 leading from the outer bay. 



These little towns are all most pic- 

 turesque, as the photograph taken of 

 Kajo shows. When it was taken the 

 water looked so blue and the beaches so 

 white, from the top of a hill near the 

 mouth of the bay, that it seemed almost 

 as if it were the glimpse of another 

 world. Way below, near the shore, a 

 rough crowd of Papuans were talking 

 over the steam launch which had carried 

 us in here. In the boat it had been 

 smoky and frightfully hot, while the 

 crowd that waited for us was indeed a 

 noisy one. 



Men of all ages shrieked and yelled 

 and hopped up and down in their frantic 

 efforts to give vent to thei" excitement — 

 men as naked as when they were born 

 and who had evidently refrained from 

 bathing for a long time. Many objects 

 interested them, and most naturally. 

 Cameras were a source of deep curiosity, 

 as were butterfly nets and killing bot- 



* Copyright, 1908, by Thomas Barbour. 



