FOOD, DRINK AND DELICACIES. 15 



Sait is not used in Humboldt Bay and on Lake Sentâni; the food is prepared 

 with fresh water. True, the sait which BlNK [1897, 208] gave to the people of Lake 

 Sentâni to taste, was much appreciated by them, whilst the short distance from the lake to 

 the Jôtèfa Bay (2 hours on foot), would offer no impediment to fetching sait water; but they 

 apparently dont think it worth the trouble. Of a regular sait industry, by evaporation, I hâve 

 never noticed anything on the tours of the expédition. Van DER Goes [1858, 149] noticed 

 the use of sait water in the sago-porridge at Doré; the ashes of beach wood, saturated with 

 seawater are hère also added to the food. The inhabitants of Astrolabe Bay, according 

 to BlRO [1901, 97, fig. 4], often walk about sucking such a pièce of charred wood and they 

 hâve spécial bamboo cases to préserve the ashes. But this sait, according to HaGEN [1899, 246], 

 must be used quickly after préparation, as it liquifies very rapidly. Many of the inhabitants 

 of the mountains are equally fond of sait and carry back to the mountains, when they return 

 from the markets along the coast, bamboo's filled with seawater, in the same way as, accor- 

 ding to VON ROSENBERG [1875, 94, 104], the people of Hâtam and Arfak, according to 

 MACLAY and others, the inhabitants of the mountains in K. W. Land. It therefore appears 

 from this, that Humboldt Bay and surroundings form a saltless territory in the middle 

 of sait consumers to the east as well as to the west. It still deserves to be mentioned that 

 I found in a man's bag (N°. 632) at Oinâke, the root of a plant (wrapped up in a leaf N°. 

 101) M avant a spec. (Scitamineae), possibly used as food or condiment; the same bag contained 

 a small pièce of masoi of Sassafras goesianum (Massoia aromatica Becc.) which 

 however, as far as I know, is not used by the Papuans themselves, but collected hère on 

 the north coast for account of the traders from Ternate, whose commercial relations hâve been 

 extended, during the last few years, across the Netherlands German frontier. 



The inquiry as to the distribution oftobacco in New Guinea, has produced the remarkable fact, 

 that its use was until recently quite unknown in several places along the coast, whilst it is found at the 

 same rime in good quality on the upper reaches of the Fly and Augusta Rivers. Besides, since memory of 

 man, the tobacco of the Arfak Mountains has a good réputation and serves on a large scale as an article 

 of barter. According to Biro [1901, 98] the plant grows wild in the deepest interior, for which reason 

 Krieger [1899, 2I ô] considers it without any doubt a native plant. Hagen [1899, 245] expresses himself 

 in this way : that the people living in central New Guinea hâve introduced, together with the tobacco, the 

 manner of cultivation. One feels inclined to conclude, from the fact that the people of the mountains 

 actually produce the best tobacco, that this luxury has reached the coast population from the interior to 

 the coast districts. Haddox [1894, 256] thinks, that in the propagation of the tobacco, which was met 

 with on the Fly River 570 miles from its mouth, this river has been, to a certain extent, what may be 

 termed a culture route and that the natives of the higher reaches hâve not only indirect communication 

 with those of the north coast of New Guinea, but that, along this river, the tobacco found its way to 

 Torres Straits and the Gulf District, and thence to the south east. 



Mac Farlane [188S, 125] maintained just the reverse and thought, that the natives of the Fly River 

 District acquired the habit of smoking from the Torres Straits natives and thèse in their turn from the 

 mother of pearl fishermen. 



The expérience of the expédition with regard to this question has not resulted into 

 anything new ; everywhere it was found that the inhabitants, however much they appreciated 

 European tobacco, cultivated their own tobacco, and also smoked it ; of a trade in tobacco, 

 b etween people living on the coast and those in the interior, as occurs in a great many places 



