THE SISSANO COMMUNITY. 13 
the winds stir up a strong sea. In order to keep the canoe from capsizing 
and to lower the center of gravity as much as possible we had to sit imme- 
diately upon the bilges of the canoe, and there is always water there. 
After a voyage of half an hour on the Sissano Lagoon one emerges from a 
forest of coconuts suddenly upon the sunken district where the dead and 
leafless palm stems are a melancholy spectacle. This border zone is of a 
width of 1 to 1% kilometers. One has to wind in and out among the dead 
trunks with the utmost care, for the slightest bump would be sufficient to 
bring rotting stems crashing down. Soon we are in the open lagoon and steer 
directly for the sunken island where formerly 2,000 Waropu lived. Many 
houses have already fallen in ruin before the dashing waves, some have 
remained, especially a small spirit house into which we crept in order to loot 
its heaped-up treasures. In their superstition the Waropu let everything 
after the catastrophe lie untouched, so that we were able to carry away 
decorated skulls, objects of magic-working, the rare dancing masks worn at 
the circumcision festivals, and other such objects. 
Then we continued to the other side of the lagoon to the Arép towns. The 
Waropu formerly living between the Sissano and the Arép had always been 
in fiercest enmity with their neighbors and had occupied much the same 
position as the Lae-Womba on the lower Markham River. It was clearly a 
judgment of God that the calamity of the earthquake fell upon the Waropu 
exclusively and that the sunken district ceased at the boundaries of the 
Sissano and the Ardp. It is clear that the small point of land on which 
Ar6ép stands is involved in a slow subsidence, so that the inhabitants in a little 
while must forsake the place. 
During the catastrophe the Waropu were able to embark quickly upon 
their boats, so that only two children were drowned. Early next morning 
they came for succor to the Sissano, who showed no sign of sympathy, but 
set themselves in readiness to massacre their ancient foes, now defenseless. 
Had Schulz not intervened there would have been a cruel bath of blood. 
The Waropu then built new towns on the shore of their lagoon. 
One day Schulz informed me that he must go to Eitapé in order to get 
new trade from the store of the New Guinea'Company. Asa matter of fact 
he had plenty of trade, but the quarter was near its end and thirst once more 
began to plague him. He swore by all that was high and holy that he would 
be back in five days. The voyage each way took up two days. 
In Eitapé he was in the way of wholesale trade, for he bought a whole 
box at once containing 48 bottles of beer and went into camp beside it; if his 
credit ran to it, as this time it did, he would get a second box and his sojourn 
prolonged itself about two days. Eight days later Schulz had not returned, 
but one of his black boys came back to Sissano. When I asked him what 
was the matter with his master he said “Master Skuls did.’”’ I was in the 
highest degree alarmed, for the death of my host put me in an unpleasant 
position. ‘Thank God, the case was not so bad, for I had not fully grasped 
the niceties of the Pidgin. The black boy sought to express with the word 
“did”? no more than the fact that his master lay dead drunk. If Schulz 
had been as dead as a rat the black boy would have said “‘did finish.”” When 
his credit was exhausted they stowed Schulz and his trade aboard a small 
schooner which came into view off Sissano in the early morning. But it 
was evening before his legs recovered sufficient supporting power for Schulz 
to think of coming ashore. Now my host was once more the most industrious, 
the most sensible man, the best associate whom I could wish in the wilderness. 
When a year and a quarter later he went again to Hitapé he stayed “‘did 
finish.”” (Pages 61-66.) 
