BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 
I3'. 
Each Papuan’s first sentiment as regards a casual stranger from a neighbour- 
ing village seems to be that of the Duchess whose customary remark on similar 
occasions was “Off with his head.’' Head-hunting is the relaxation, and canni- 
balism the business of some communities, and they take their pleasure first, 
though not with frugal minds. As the redskin counts his scalps, the muscular 
native of New Guinea preserves the more substantial skull of his victim, and in 
one house in the cannibal village of Maipua “ no fewer than two hundred aiul 
fifty human skulls were seen, all arranged tastefully along the dividing partitions 
of the house,” not counting the skulls of alligators, pigs, dogs, &c. One may 
perhaps discover in such an exhibition the germ from which our Natural History 
Museum has been evolved, since we are told on high authority that “from pre- 
serving a specimen to studying it is but a step."’ So soon as a community begins 
to go under its doom is probably sealed, ami the inhabitants have to revert to 
such arboreal habits as the accompanying illustration of a tree-house shows. In 
some villages such dwellings are used as sentinel houses, and it is easy to imagine 
the same building figuring both as watch-house and place of refuge at different 
stages of the misfortunes of a community. It is scarcely possible to imagine a 
more terrible state of society or more perfect picture of anarchy than is described 
as existing over large areas of this land. Even a socialist transported thither 
would prefer a bloated monarchy. 
It is some comfort to reflect that the energy and courage of .Sir W. Maegregor 
is reducing in British New Guinea such lawlessness as is described above. His 
manner of dealing with the murderers of Captain Ansell of the ^lar of Peace is 
well calculated to inspire a knowdedge of, and respect for justice very different 
from the useless shelling and burning of villages, of which one reads in other lands. 
Our other illustration is of virtual “ lake dwellings,” or marine residences on 
stilts — the village of Kapakapa — the inhabitants of which no doubt find it com- 
bines utility and safety with salubrity. Among the singular burial customs is 
that of exposing dead bodies on elevated platforms such as Mr. Forbes describes 
in his lVanderi7igs as being in vogue In the neighbouring island of Timor Laut. 
The valuable appendices on the zoology of British New Guinea, with a sketch 
of the botany by Baron von Mueller, and the lists of words in the different 
dialects are all valuable features of this beautiful book, which is a most useful 
and complete summary of our knowledge of an interesting land. 
Helen J, Murray. 
