RELIGION. 305 



character. Such a drum (N°. 1276, PI. XXVIII, fig. 1), but by far not the most beautiful, which 

 had been made inside the temple and hollowed by fire, and which was never allowed to be 

 beaten, pan, anywhere but inside, nor to be seen by women and children, I obtained after 

 long pressure under great secrecy. In the community house at Asé similar drums, but carved 

 with différent ornaments (zigzag line), were also hanging above the fire place and were 

 prized very highly. Hère the great value was for the greater part owing to their âge, and 

 also because they date from the stone period. I gathered at several places that the hollow 

 was obtained by burning, and the inside of some drums has still plainly a thin, charred 

 laver. ERDWEG [1902, 302] proves that the core of certain palms, by putting water 

 in, rots very quickly and that thus the hollow might be easily obtained. When bartering 

 such a drum, N°. 1277 (PI. XXVIII, fig. 4) of Asé, they tried to make me believe that the value 

 lay in the sound and to convince me of this, it was beaten; in reply I had two steel axes 

 sounded against each other, asking them how they liked this sound, and amidst gênerai 

 laughter the exchange took place. Hère there was no necessity to hide the drums from anybody, 

 a smaller spécimen, not less beautifully carved (N°. 1278, PI. XXVIII, fig. 3) being brought 

 to me by one of the villagers, evidently out of his own house. 



The drum of Kaptiau (N°. 1286, PL XXVIII, fig. 5), has the slender form which is 

 also so fréquent in German N. G., called "tifa" in the Moluccas, whilst the spécimens of 

 Kwatisoré (N°. 1287, PI. XXVIII, fig. 7) and Angâdi (N°. 1288, PI. XXVIII, fig. 6) excel 

 on account of length and extraordinary thinness of the walls. The two drums of Mios Korwâr 

 (N°. 12S9, PL XXVIII, fig. 8, and N°. 1290) are in the shape of a moderately high and 

 wide cylinder, slightly of the hour-glass type, as appears to be characteristic of the West 

 (Van DlSSEL [1904, fig. 10]), the Moluccas (Martin [1894, PL VII, fig. i; PL XXXVII, 

 fig. 1]) and the Babar Archipelago (RlEDEL [1886, PL XXXIII, figs. 9 and 10]). 



Wherever there is a handle, it is often applied in Netherl. territory (De Clercq and 

 SCHMELTZ [1903]), as well as in German territory (ERDWEG [1902, 303, fig. 203]) in the 

 shape of a crocodile, the hand grasping it round the body, between the fore and hind legs. 

 N°. 1279 of Waba (PL XXVIII, fig. 2) is worked in this manner. 



In Tobâdi I found small hand-drums of a cylindrical pièce of bamboo, with and 

 without the carving of N°. 1284 (PL XXVIII, fig. 10), as the men carry about with them 

 without any secrecy; in Waba such small drums (N°. 1285, PL XXVIII, fig. 11) were even 

 used as tobacco holders, also for holding their spoon and fork. 



The tympanum of the drum in most cases consists of Varanus skin, with the 

 spécimens of Lake Sentâni (N os . 1277 — 78) of cassowary skin, which DE CLERCQ and SCHMELTZ 

 [1893, 156, N°. 666] also report from Wandisiau. On N°. 1284 of H. B. shark skin is used, on 

 N°. 1281 a membrane, undoubtedly coming from the tractus intestinalis of a crocodile or 

 pig, having on the inside dry, hard papillae. On Mios Kôrwâr, an island where no cassowary 

 or Varanus are found, the skin of the crocodile, belly part, (N os . 1289 — 90) is used, the 

 scales of which hâve been loosened by a long soaking in sea water, at ail events I found 

 B alanidae on the edges. The skin of marsupials (SELIGMANN [1906, 229]) or snakes (Van 

 DER GoES [1858, 163]) does not occur with the drums in question, nor prepared bark, as 

 reported by Van DER GoES [1858, 181] of H. B. ; probably this author has confused this 

 with cassowary skin, which often retains the remnants of fibres of feathers. 



Nova Guinea. III. Ethnography. 39 



