NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
685 
pointed beards, apparently cut to that shape ; the old ones had whiskers. One old man 
who was bald, wore a. complete but small wig. None of the men were tattooed, but they 
had large cicatrised marks on the outer sides of the upper arms, and smaller ones on 
the shoulders. 
The fungoid skin disease was common here as at the Arrou and Ki Islands, but only 
on the adults ; the boys and many of the younger men were free from it. 
The men attracted attention to barter by the cries of “ urh, urh ” ! ; to express astonish- 
ment they struck the top of the. outer sides of their thighs with their extended palms. 
Refusal of barter or negation was combined with an expression of disgust, or rather the 
two ideas are not apparently separated ; the refusal was expressed by an extreme pouting 
of the lips, accompanied by an expiratory sniff from the nostrils. The forehead muscles 
w r ere very little used in expression, though they were slightly knitted in astonishment. 
In laughing, the corners of the mouth were excessively drawn back, so that four or five 
deep folds were formed round the angles of the mouth, the head was lolled back, the 
mouth opened wide, and the whole of the upper teeth uncovered ; the whole expression 
was most ape-like. 
The bows of the Humboldt Bay natives are cut out of solid palm-wood, and require a 
very hard pull. They taper to a fine point at either end, and in stringing and unstring- 
ing them a loop at the end of the string is slipped on and off this point and rests in the 
extended bow on a boss raised with wicker-work, at some distance from the bow-tip. 
The bows are strung quickly by their lower ends being placed between the supports of 
the canoe outriggers as a fulcrum. If an attempt be made to string a bow, by resting 
one end on the ground, the tapering end snaps off directly pressure is applied. The 
bowstring is a thick flat band of rattan, and the arrows, like all New Guinea arrows, have 
no notch, but are flat at the ends, and are also without feathers. The natives have 
never learnt the improvement of the notch and feather. The men of Api Island, New 
Hebrides, have most carefully worked notches to their arrows, but still no feather. The 
Arrou Islanders have both notch and feather. 1 The Humboldt Bay arrows further are 
excessively long, far too long for the bows, being 5 feet in length, so that not more than 
half of their length can be drawn, they are rather small spears thrown by a clumsy bow 
for short distances than arrows. They go with immense force for a certain distance, 
but only fly straight for ten or a dozen yards, wobbling and turning over after that 
length of flight. 
In the Humboldt Bay stone choppers, the stone blade is mounted in the end of a 
long wooden socket piece which is fitted into a round hole at the end of the club-like 
handle. The socket piece can thus be turned round so that the blade can be set to be 
used like that of either an axe or an adze. The handle and socket piece form nearly a 
1 For the distribution and various forms of bows and arrows, see General Lane Fox, F.R S., On Primitive Warfa 
Journ. Boy, United Service Inst., 1867-69. 
