193 



G. A. J. VAN DER SAXDE. 



the practical sensé of the men, preferring smooth, uncarved paddles, because the blade, 

 serving for the greater part of the time as a support in the water, must slide through the 

 water like a sword. A carved surface would increase the résistance in the water in an undesirable 

 degree. For bailing out the water, the long, smooth bract of a palm leaf (N°. 678) is used on 

 Lake Sentâni (see PI. XXIV, fig. 14), which I found from personal expérience, was very well 

 adapted for the gutter-like bottom of the Isja. Another manner of bailing, also known amongst 



' the Malays, is, by suddenly 

 pushing the foot, the sole 

 turned forward, throwing the 

 water over the side. This 

 could also be done in the Isja, 

 even whilst it was in motion. 

 The men 's boat of 

 HumboldtBayis the wàche 

 or zvàre. Cut out of a tree, 

 but higher than it is broad, 

 the height being increas- 

 ed by side-boards, br'ébâre, 

 wachbrvbâre, sewn on, and 

 provided with an outrigger, 

 it represents a type, which 

 is found along the whole of 

 the coast and the islands of 

 North N. G. to the east of 

 Point D'Urville, as far as 



Fig. 128. Bridai procession; many Isja ou the shore; A se. 



K. W. Land. More to the east (Hagen [1899, 218]) the number of side-boards increases, like 

 in the Murua boats, waga (SELIGMANN [1906, 237]) of British N. G. There is scarcely any 

 différence between the ends of the hull proper, although the stern is sometimes more perpen- 

 dicular; otherwise both are curved. The gunwales approach each other in such a manner 

 that both legs cannot be placed alongside each other, although the width of the hollow is 

 large enough. The wood of which thèse crafts are manufactured, light and easely worked, 

 is not very durable; after a couple of years the boat becomes untrustworthy and is cut up 

 into planks. In front of each village you see one or more of thèse crafts being made, often 

 protected under a roofing, against the rays of the sun. The Tobâdi people hâve their wharf 

 on a sand bank on the small island of Entjemâg; the people of Ingrâs theirs on the peninsula 

 opposite their village. 



The collection contains a couple of pièces of a broken-up wàche, (N°. 656), which 

 show, inter alia, the thickness of the sides (1.7 — 2.4 cm.), of a regularity which certainly 

 deserves admiration, when it is considered that the Papuan uses no spécial implements but 

 only judges of the thickness, by placing the palm of his hands simultaneously inside and outside. 

 In order to prevent them from bending in or out, two small, transverse planks are inserted at 

 the middle of the boat, as mentioned of'Tumleo by ERDWEG [1902, 366]. The ornamentation 

 of the hull is not obtained by burning, as Van DER GOES [1858, 174] thought, but by carving. 



