NEW GUINEA AND THE PAPUANS 
425 
southern boundary, the first of any importance is Prince 
Frederick Henry Island. Although 90 miles in extreme 
length, it is low, perfectly flat, and marshy, and is only 
separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. It 
thus partakes of the nature of a delta island, and is of 
little or no value. To the north-north-west lies the Aru 
group, a vast congeries of islands, the nearest of which is 
not less than 7 0 miles distant from the mainland, yet the 
intervening sea is so shallow as everywhere to be fished 
for pearls by the native divers, and the presence of casso¬ 
waries, kangaroos, and birds-of-paradise shows the islands 
to be purely Papuan. The group is compactly massed, 
and is about 130 miles long by 50 broad, consisting of 
one island—or, more accurately, land mass—of large size, 
the Tana besar of the Malays, and innumerable other 
islands. This Tana besar is divided by numerous narrow 
channels, resembling rivers, the origin of which it is diffi¬ 
cult to explain, the more so as in some cases these 
marine rivers, as they may be termed, are culs-de-sac. 
Herr Eibbe and another German naturalist resided on 
the islands for more than a year in 1882, and records 
that rain fell on 250 days in 12 months’ observations. 
This rainfall, however, was considered unusual, and the 
islands sometimes suffer considerably from drought. The 
natives are undoubted Papuans, although they do not 
cultivate the large mops of hair usually worn by that 
race. Every family has its peculiar totem, which is 
carved over the doorway of the house, and the houses are 
of remarkable construction, built on piles sunk in the 
solid rock, and consisting of two rooms only, the one sur¬ 
rounding the other. The people are apparently divided 
into two brotherhoods or confederations—the Uli-luna 
and the Uli-siwa—which are more or less at enmity 
with each other. An altogether separate tribe are the 
