14 G. A. J. VAN DER SANDE. 



with a handle; the name of ladle which De CLERCQ (De CLERCQ and SCHMELTZ [1893, 67]) 

 gives them, does not take this latter custom into sufficient account. The strength and évident 

 technical perspicacity with which the handle is fastened on to the cocoa-nut shell, simply 

 with strips of rattan (N°. 96 and 97, PL III, fig. 4 and 5), is very well worth noticing. N°. 98 

 (PL III, fig. 6) a cocoa-nut shell, into which a handle is fastened, only by jamming, is a 

 poor pièce of furniture of the Sëkânto, a tribe in the interior behind Humboldt Bay, 

 which has got into a great state of décline by the persécutions of neighbouring tribes. 

 Possibly the article is still unfinished. A variety from ail thèse objects is N°. 99 (PL III, 

 fig- 3) °f Angâdi where, instead of the cocoa-nut, a thin calabash shell is fastened to the 

 handle. Outside the house, the Papuan uses a leaf of the first shrub he cornes across, folded 

 ■up, as a cup. Still more simple was what the people of Angâdi did, who accompanied the 

 expédition ; they stood still for a moment in a mountain stream which we passed on the march 

 and with their right hand, in quick tempo's, threw small handfulls of water into their mouths, 

 so cleverly, that they did not wet their faces. The same way of drinking is reported by 

 Stevens [1897, 184] from the orang laut of the peninsula of Malacca. 



The mountaineers, as f. i. the Hâtam, obtain their drinking water, according to VON 

 ROSENBERG [1875, 104], by pressing the moist moss, which grows on the trees and bushes, 

 sometimes they also dig pits in which the rainwater remains standing for a long time. Where 

 the mountain bamboo grows, the water of the internodes is drunk in times of scarcity, as 

 experienced by VAN DlSSEL [1904, 952] in West New Guinea. The officers of H. M.'s Ceram, 

 who in 1901 climbed the Dafônsëro, top of the Cyclope Mountains, were offered this bamboo 

 water by the Papuans from Tanah Merah, who accompanied them. By the way I must hère 

 remark that the offer of drinking water in trays or leaves was formerly intended in 

 Humboldt Bay and elsewhere as a welcome (see farther Chapter X). 



In strong contrast with the sobriety of thèse people, is the abuse made of the sagueir in 

 Geelvink Bay. As well known, this palm wine is obtained from différent palms, but by préfé- 

 rence from Are >i g a saccharifer a, by cutting off the inflorescence, collecting the liquid which 

 drips out and leaving it to ferment. According to KRIEGER [1899, 429] it is sufficient, with 

 Nipa and cocoa-nut palms, to bore a hole in the rind. As a rule the liquid is collected in a 

 bamboo like N°. 100 of the collection. A small sieve is procured from a pièce of the bract 

 of Arenga, of which the softer tissues are decayed and of which the stronger nerves, running 

 in two directions, hâve been retained. 



The inhabitants of the mountains, do not know the sagueir and we therefore présume 

 that the habit has becn introduced from elsewhere; this I found confirmed by the Mamkion and, as 

 far as the veracity of the people can be relied upon, also in Angâdi (Lake JamDr). I did not meet 

 hère with the characteristic appearance of the abuser of sagueir: a shining face, red nose and 

 swollen eyelids. But thèse people are noue the less warlike for ail that, as was proved by the 

 récent murder and robbing raids of the lake-inhabitants in the southern districts. In Geelvink 

 Bay, according to the expérience of the missionaries and the government officiais, the murderous 

 raids, râk, are generally planned on days when much sagueir is being drunk. Finally the Kawa 

 or Kial, as it is called in K. W. Land, the greenish juice, which is obtained by chewing the 

 root of Piper methy sticum and for which nicely carved cups of cocoa-nut shell (BlRO [1901, 

 103, fig. 55]) are often used is, as far as I am aware, never used in Netherlands New Guinea. 



