178 



G. A. J. VAX DER SANDE. 



on the top and in some valleys (fig. 113), being now grown over with the wild grass, 

 Imper a ta arundinacea, causing a very barren appearance. 



I hâve nowhere examined the différent plants in the distant gardens, nor the methods 

 of cultivation; but certainly no manure is used. It was easy to ascertain that, as everywhere 

 else, the women and girls are employed for carrying the heavy loads home from the gardens. 

 In the west, on the banks of Geelvink Bay, and also on Lake Jamîir, larger or smaller 

 baskets are used for this purpose, carefully plaited of strips of Panda nus -leaf (N°. 620, 

 PL XX, fig. 12) or of strips of Hibiscu j-bark (N°\ 623 — 624), but also of reeds (X°. 625). 



Fig 113. Hills almost totaly cleared of the forests: Lake Sentâni. 



Otherwise, over the whole of New Guinea, the bag made of cord with the simple ''figure eight" 

 stitch (fig. 9), seems to be in gênerai use, and is carried on the back with a string round 

 the forehead. To thèse bags and the men's bags I refer more fully on subséquent pages. 



Meanwhile the method is everywhere understood how to make, at a moment's notice, 

 a basket out of a green palm leaf. YVhen the pièces of chloromelanite, seen lying on the 

 oblique stem in fig m, had to be removed, the Papuans, accompanying us, had, in the 

 twinkling of an eye, made for this purpose such baskets with slings, to hang from their 

 shoulders. The technique adopted, is to split in two the stalk of a palm leaf and to make 

 of each half a plaiting by twisting, according to the simple System of fig. 4, the even and 

 uneven side leaves, folded lengthwise or not. Thus the little basket X°. 621, from Tobâdi, has 

 been plaited, resembling in principle the food basket of Asé, described under N°. 87 (PL III, 

 fig. 17), and also the basket of Tarfia which De Clercq and SCHMELTZ [1893, Si, N°. 404, 

 PL XXII, fig. 12] illustrate. Of Astrolabe Bay, BlRO [1901, 63, fig. 28, /] illustrâtes such a 

 basket, round which a network of cord has been formed in order to strengthen it. The 

 basket of Kaptiau, X°. 622 (PL XX, fig. 13), shows a very practical application of plaiting of 



