BURIAL AND WITCHCRAFT 
The Papuans are entirely without history as a 
people, and of personal tradition they have only the 
merest scraps. At Port Moresby they had a legend 
of an eclipse, and referred to it as ‘‘ Labi labi” (that is, 
“night”). They have no tales of gods or heroes, and 
their chief interest is the question, “‘ Where are you 
going?” and ‘ What are you doing?” 
They were very keen to see our photographs, and 
had no difficulty in understanding a picture: therein 
they differed greatly from the debased Australian 
aborigines, who could never grasp the graphic symbol, 
and in the famous instance, when shown a picture of 
Queen Victoria, said it was a ship. They picked out 
their friends’ photographs at once, and recognised 
them with exclamations of delight. For one of our 
men, however, our stereoscope proved too much, as 
the relief of the figures had probably been too realistic ; 
and on being invited to look at a group of our re- 
tainers, he no sooner put his eyes to the glass than he 
howled and nearly dropped the instrument. He ran 
away, saying, “‘Mookau meego” (“ Man lives there”), 
and could not be persuaded to look again. 
I hope that during my next journey I may be able 
to pierce more deeply into the psychology of the 
Papuans, and it may be that, with greater familiarity, 
they will communicate more of what they know; for it 
appears improbable that they should be as destitute as 
they seem of legend or myth. 
Over the “ Bau-bau,” or social pipe, I trust there 
may be some discoveries in store for me. ‘The Papuan 
pipe is itself a most interesting instrument, not only 
in its everyday use, but in its construction and in 
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