8 G. A. J. VAN DER SANDE. 



wall of a long bone, may be called remarkable. Macgregor [1897, 72] mentions similar five and six-pronged 

 objects, of hard cassowary. bone, as forks. 



I am unable from personal observation to give a proper summary of other vegetable 

 articles of food, as the meals were generally taken inside the houses. After sago, Co locasium 

 antiqitorum {tard), several kinds of Dioscorea {Yams) and Batata edulis (ubi) form the 

 principal food. Besides Musa which is roasted in the skin, in the same way as Artocar pus 

 fruit, of which both méat and seeds are eaten, one often cornes across sugar-cane {Sac- 

 char u m- offi c in arum) and the pièces which were presented to me on Lake Sentâni, were 

 according to the Malay kuli's of a particularly sweet taste. 



A few times the members of the expédition hâve eaten the young shoots of the wild 

 Lagenaria boiled, whilst the fruits of Inocarpus edulis, which also grew plentifully in a 

 garden close to the bivouac at Jâga, on Lake Sentâni, were roasted for use. 



The milk of the cocoa-nut. is drunk and the méat is scraped out with C a r d i u 7/1-sheM 

 (N°. 55), the husk, the mesocarpium, having been first opened with wooden instruments, eut 

 like chisels, mentioned also from other parts and to be found in most of the men's bags, 

 which are stuck with great force between the fibres and then forced down (like a lever). I 

 présume that the elegantly carved object, N°. 56, PI. I, fig. 20, from Tobâdi, presented as a 

 knife, is nothing else but such a cocoa-nut opener, of which the collection contains some 

 five spécimens (N°. 57 — 61, PI. I, fig. 19). Possibly N°. 56 may also hâve been intended to 

 be used in tearing ofF the fibres of the aërial root of Panda nu s, for the carved ornament is 

 similar to that on the small sticks (N°. 580-7582, PI. XX, fig. 16) which are used for this 

 purpose. It would not be the only instance, where objects intended for the same purpose 

 are ornamented in a similar manner! 



The cocoa-nut just sprouting, contains inside a ball-shaped, spungy mass, of a sweety 

 taste (diastase), which, as well as the young shoot, is much eaten, by préférence at festivities. 

 Amongst the literature at my disposai, I found only mention made by Erdweg [1902, 338] 

 that this is the way most fancied by the Papuan of the north coast for enjoying the 

 cocoa-nut. Now and then one notices in a village a great quantity of thèse sprouting 

 cocoa-nuts, hanging about, but it would be a mistake to consider them as intended for 

 young plantations. On fig. 2, from Kaptiau, a long row of thèse nuts may be noticed, 

 strung up behind the festive dancers, and the photo of the village of Serr by MEYER and 

 PARKINSON [1906, PI. 7] shows a similar row, a certain proof that hère also a feast is about 

 to take place. 



The préparation of the dishes, when fire is required, seldom takes place in Nether- 

 lands North New Guinea outside the houses, whereas in K. W. Land this is the rule. It is 

 also almost exclusively the duty of the women, who do their work in the semi-darkness of 

 the houses. Except in the case of people who prepared their iood when they were on an expé- 

 dition, I only once saw a fireplace in the open air, namely at Asé at the foot of a tree. On 

 board of the boats a fire is also often kept burning on potsherds (see also FlNSCH [1888 — 93, 

 199]) or on carapaces of small turtles, for the purpose of roasting fish. 



For the smoking of fish, I met in the temple of Nàcheibe with a cylindrical 

 apparatus_ (N°. 62, PI. I, fig. 15) with a grating at the lower and a cover at the upper 

 end, suspended immediately over a fireplace and identical with the apparatus which 



