116 NOTES ON THE INHABITAXTS OF NEW IRELAND, ETC. 



as was practised in Thebes 5000 years ago, more or less ; in 

 Cairo in 1880 ; New Zealand in 1860, and in New Ireland, the 

 Solomons, and Polynesia in the present year of grace. The 

 examples of this "painting" which I have copied from New 

 Ireland women will, I ti-ust, be acceptable to Ethnologists 

 and all who take delight in ethnic studies. 



Of the language of Ne\v Ireland and its adjacent islands, I 

 found that, while the words were the same among half-a-dozen 

 different tribes and islands, the pronunciation was so diffei'ent 

 as to make it appear, at first, that they spoke a different tongue, 

 but, in reality, I think the languages of the archipelago are all 

 of one family. It is true that I met with more Spanish w^ords 

 in one island than in another, and the same may be said of Arabic 

 words. Of these latter, I point out four or five remarkable 

 examples. Baramikeh was the name of a family famous for 

 the favours conferred on its female members by Haroon Er- 

 Rasheed. The term is now applied to a class of women who 

 are, at the same time, the handsomest and most abandoned of 

 the beauties of modern Egypt ; also of the same class, when 

 time has battered their charms, and who then obtain a pre- 

 carious living by fortune-telling, "puncturing and circumcising," 

 and the same woi-d is used to-day as a term of endearment 

 among the female natives of New Ireland. The ancient word 

 lialfa is also in use among the ])eople of Lower Egypt, and alfa 

 is the word used among the " Indians" of the Peruvian valleys 

 to denote the same alfalfa, or lucerne, common to both coun- 

 tries. Kizmett signifies, in New Ireland, the unswerving course 

 of the sun. Fono is an ancient Egyptian word for the bracelet 

 holding a charm ; funno, in New Ireland, is the ring Avhich is 

 hung from the septum of the nose, and saah, in New Ireland, is 

 used in the same sense as mhih. The pottery of New Ireland is 

 Egyptian in form and ornamentation ; so are their reed musical 

 instruments : goft, the pan-pipe ; tijfenoiv (to sing), a flageolette ; 

 and knapp, a Jews-harp, exquisitely made of bamboo. I heard 

 no tune played on these insti'uments, but the notes, although 

 produced at random, made a pleasing noise. I found no metals 

 or ores of metals, except an oxide of maganese, which they call 

 lahdn, and men only use it to blacken their skins. They ai'e 

 fond of painting their faces, and some of the designs and dis- 

 figurements would creato a sensation in a travelling circus at 

 home if the clown and slippered pantaloon were to adopt them. 

 Their personal adornments were, for the most part, made of 

 shell-work ; the peil, a circular plate ground out of the Tridacna 

 gig as shell (always worn by men on the chest), and a crescent 



