HABITATIONS AND FURNITURE. 143 



the night, I therefore understood that the local inhabitants themselves were not ail to be trusted, 

 and followed the advice, availing myself unasked of the opportunity to show the arms, which 

 I might use against such strange(?) thieves. We can hardly réalise what the western artificial 

 light must be in the eyes of thèse people ; in the evening, when writing by a lamp, which 

 quite illuminated my tent, opened on one side, a number of interested people was squatted 

 down outside in the darkness, unable to see enough of the light. If I placed a native in the 

 dark and threw with a concave mirror the reflected light into his eyes, the man tried, however 

 courageous and trustful he might otherwise be, to évade the light which frightened him. 



Ail thèse things were incompréhensible for the Papuan, otherwise not deprived of 

 intelligence. On an evening when my lantern was burning very poorly on account of smoking 

 and charring, and the servant did not answer my call, I myself, after cleaning the globe, 

 trimmed the lamp, with a spare pièce of lampwick, upon which an approving murmer at 

 once saluted the improved light. Next morning the bartering, to my surprise, would not get 

 on at ail with the ordinary means, as, it turned out, there was only a demand for .... pièces 

 of lampwick ! 



Above the fire places large wooden gratings are often suspended, called at Asé, 

 engôngô, often consisting of three or four stages and used in order to place thereon ail sorts 

 of kitchen utensils, spatulas for stirring up, jancharu, pots, etc., whilst also sometimes bags 

 and cylinders, of which one wishes the contents to be protected from mice and insects, are 

 suspended hère. For the smoking proper of fish, for which, according to Van DER GOES 

 [1858, 176] they are intended, I did not see them used; the smoking cylinder (N°. 62, PI. I, 

 fig. 15), serving for the purpose, hanging much lower near the flame and is closed at the top. 

 ERDWEG [1902, 334], regarding Tumleo, considers that both kinds of instruments serve foi- 

 smoking fish. At the Ramu River the gratings are round (NACHRICHTEN [1896, 60]). At 

 Asé the stage gratings are as long as 2 m. and more than 1 m. broad, at Angâdi of the same shape 

 but smaller, whilst De Clercq and ScHMELTZ [1893, 63, N°. 272, PL XVII, fig. 13] mention 

 a similar but still smaller rack of Sailolof, used to protect already prepared fish against cats 

 and rats. Such précautions are always necessary in the house of the Papuan (see also p. 1 29) ; 

 when looking round, one finds, preserved in the smoke of the fires, in flat, plaited baskets 

 (at Asé called araiï), ail sorts of objects of daily use, larger objects being suspended by their own 

 strings. Thus the valuable drums of Tobâdi (figs. 187 — 190), and the spécimen ofAsé(N°. 1277, 

 PI. XXVIII, fig. 4) were hanging over a fire, protected against wood beetles. Generally thèse 

 objects are suspended from a suspensory hook, which is again suspended with a string from 

 the roof. Thèse wooden hooks, so common in the eastern part of Netherl. North New Guinea 

 in the dwellings and temples, seem to be very rare in K. W. Land. The Berlin Muséum 

 possesses one, probably the spécimen met with by FlNSCH [1888 — 93, 196; i888 a , PI. III, fig. 2] 

 in Finsch Harbour; but still hook-shaped branches, suspended by strips of bark, are mentioned 

 from Tumleo (ERDWEG [1902, 361]). Ten Kate [1895, 5] reports of Rôti a hook, which is 

 strikingly alike the kind from North New Guinea, whilst EDGE PARTINGTON illustrâtes two 

 of the lower Fly River [1898, PL 72, N°. 1 and 2] and two beautiful ones [Le, PL 88, N°. 1 

 and 2] of Woodlark Islands. One sees sometimes large, rough S-shaped hooks, as the one 

 hanging on to the rafters in fig. 186, but the greater part of the hooks of the collection are 

 eut from massive wood and show by the beautiful way in which they are carved, how much 



