272 S. D. Riplay—Round about Butch New Guinea


bring ant's eggs along from Java. There are quite good Chinese shops

in Manokwari where one may buy a large variety of canned food (and

even iced beer, a Papuan rarity). Also there is a fairly recently-

established supply of good green vegetables grown by a colony of

Dutch-Javanese colonist farmers imported a few years ago by the

government. When I left Manokwari an electric light plant had just

been installed so one can see that the amenities, so called, are just

around the comer for this outpost of civilization.


Manokwari lies on the north-west shore of Geelvink Bay, a large

area of water dotted with islands, which nearly cuts the mainland of

New Guinea in two at this point. The mail boat stops at three or

four lesser ports in the bay, one of which is almost sure to be Bosnik

on the large island of Biak. This island, very little known ornitho-

logically, is the home of a large sub-species of the Black-capped Lory,

Domicella lory cyanauchen , which strangely enough is the only member

of the family showing a marked precocity for talking. I purchased a

splendid male, “ Jacob, 5 ’ whose conversational powers were a constant

source of wonder. He would rattle along for minutes on end in a mixture

of the Biak language and Malay. The tone of his voice was low and so

quaintly pitched that one could never fail to drop all work and stop

to listen to his endearing chatter. He was very neat and tidy, constantly

bathing and preening his vivid blue and red feathers in the half coco-nut

shell tied to his perch. In this he delighted to bathe, becoming so

drenched that he looked more like a bunch of badly chewed rags than

a trim little Lory. But a few shakes, twists, and nervous preenings and

he was himself again, even more glossy than before. But, alas, the chain

to his perch was none of the best. One day in Sorong a dog scared him

and he broke off, never to return. Such are the trials and griefs of a

bird-lover.


Biak is also famous for the carved wooden images of the natives’

ancestors’ spirits. These are made by the islanders, who differ a good

deal in type from the natives of the mainland. These images, called

“ Korwars ”, are among the finest examples of primitive art to be found

in New Guinea.


The port of Hollandia on the mainland is the farthest east that the

mail boat goes, not so very many miles from the border of the Australian-



