W. G. Lawes

“ I should like to do the same for the cannibals and non-cannibals of New Guinea. I have visited a great many villages, in most of which no white man had been before; my wife and I were for a time the only Europeans living on the island, but I have never been molested anywhere. We are known along the coast as the bearers of peace. As I went through one of the villages for the first time, a native from another ran before us and shouted, "These are the maino taunas (the peace-men) , who bring and make peace everywhere!" Confidence begets confidence, and there is a wondrous power in human kindness. ”

“ The boys and girls can sit in the door-way and fish. The houses are detached, but are generally connected by a pole laid from one veranda to another. The shoeless feet of the people enable them to run along these, and they laugh at our objection to so round and slippery a bridge. ”

“ The people seem to have no religious ideas, no idols, no idea of a God as a supreme being or a good being. Their only religious ideas consist in a belief in evil spirits, toward whom they live in slavish fear, but without any idea of propitiating them by sacrifice or prayer. ”

“ All are thieves, seeming to feel no sense of shame in stealing; and we were looked upon as great wonders by the natives because we did not steal, and our honesty was always mentioned, in any description of us, as one of our peculiarities. Human life is invested with no sanctity, but the distinction the men are most proud of is that of having shed human blood. No one has a right to be tattooed until he has killed some one, and the right is sought as a privilege. ”

“ All the food is well cooked; and they look upon us as barbarous for eating our meat, as they say, half raw. This does away altogether with the idea of gnawing and tearing which we generally associate with eating without knives and forks. The water in which food has been boiled is generally drunk, even when it is fish-broth. This is their only warm drink. Tea and coffee are unknown. They have no intoxicant, and are content and healthy with no stronger beverage than the fresh cocoa-nut and running stream afford. ”

“ When food is plentiful, the day is generally closed with a ball in the open air under the cocoa-nut trees. The young people dance, while their seniors look on and criticise or commend. They will often keep up the dancing, to the monotonous music of their drums, until the small hours of the morning.
Strangers are saluted by putting the hand to the nose and then to the stomach. Shaking hands and kissing are alike unknown; but many among the inland tribes welcome their friends by chucking them under the chin. ”

“ The houses are built on piles, and we are everywhere reminded of the prehistoric lake villages of Europe. Port Moresby consists of two villages standing on the beach just below high-water mark. The houses are not built on a platform, as they are often represented, but the piles also form the posts of the houses. The natives live, as we should say, in the roof. The huts are made of thatch and wood, and floored with the sides of old canoes, which are adzed down to some approach to flatness. ”

“ The men do the heavier work of digging, while the women plant and weed. All their gardens are inclosed by well-made fences.
Hunting the wild-pig and kangaroo are favorite sports. With no other weapon than a smooth-pointed spear and a coarse net, they obtain enormous quantities of kangaroo-meat. All the men and boys join in the grand hunts. A tract of land is selected on a day when the trade-wind is blowing steady and strong. ”

“ The people have no metallic vessels, or ovens of any kind. Most of the food is boiled, and, before it can be cooked, the women have to make the pot to boil it in. They make very good pottery, which is slightly burned after being dried in the sun. They use no wheel, and yet they make well-shaped globular vessels. Roasting over a slow lire is also often practiced, and the South-Sea Island mode of cooking with hot stones is employed by the inland tribes. ”

“ Men live virtuously with their wives and children. Polygamy is not common, although it is thought to be proper for chiefs. The burden of labor is fairly divided between the men and the women; and the women insist upon carrying wood, water, and burdens, as of their rights. ”

“ The canoes of the Papuans furnish an interesting illustration of the earliest styles of naval architecture. As the people are largely dependent on the sea for means of subsistence and transport, every village has its fleet of canoes, of all sizes. ”

“ Some look like a whale-boat, depressed in the center, while others resemble the keel of a boat turned upside down. In many cases the village stands a good way out to sea, and is surrounded by water even at low tide. ”

“ The people are still in the stone age, for iron and its uses are unknown among them. They are all gardeners, and cultivate the soil carefully, with a set of agricultural implements consisting of two pointed sticks, which serve them for plow and harrow, spade and rake. ”

“ A more unwieldy, unseaworthy-looking craft it is impossible to conceive, and yet they make long voyages in such a vessel to places two hundred miles distant. They have been aptly described as huge floating hay-stacks. As they can only run before the wind, the crew choose the end of one monsoon to go to their destination, waiting the setting in of the other to return. ”

“ Among some there seems to be a vague recognition of a Great Spirit who gives them plenty and other blessings; and to the west of Port Moresby, in the district of Elema, are idols and idol-temples, but the natives there belong to the darker-colored race. ”

“ Some districts are hungry and barren, while in others food is plentiful, yet in all the bill of fare lacks variety. Every traveler makes the acquaintance of the palm called the "lawyer." It has received its name, I suppose, from the fact that at the back of its fronds are double rows of hooked thorns. ”

“ The natives are not often on peaceful terms with their neighbors, though their warfare is not deadly. They are exceedingly suspicious and distrustful. They never sleep without their weapons within reach, and never go out without spear or club. ”

“ There is always a square fire-place, made with earth, in the center of the house. You are a fortunate visitor if you go when the fire is out, and thus escape being blinded by the smoke. All along the coast the houses are built in the same way, with slight variations in the shape of the roofs. ”

“ Wallace has spoken of the natives as one race, those who have seen the inhabitants in the southeast find greater difficulty in classifying them. All agree in testifying to the great variety of physiognomy and the apparent difference in shape of skull in almost every district. Whatever the true typical Papuan may be, I have seen natives who possess many of the characteristics said to be distinctive, with others quite at variance with them. ”

“ The men are of a warm brown color, muscular and well developed, straight and agile, with fairly well-formed noses, and lips neither protruding nor thick. Many have intelligent faces, and all glory in their huge mop of hair. ”

“ All their muscles and limbs have free action, they are stately and graceful in all their movements, and their use of colored leaves and flowers no rules of art could improve. The position of the women is not so low and degraded as it often is among barbarous races. ”

“ The women are charged with the bartering, and are skillful at driving a bargain; and they have the Eastern custom of going for water at daybreak, carrying the water on the head or shoulder, and meeting for gossip at the well. ”

“ The men stand behind this barrier, with their spears and dogs, and the grass is set fire to all along the line to windward. The animals are driven, by the fire and smoke and boys, up to the nets, where their chances for escape are very small. The fishing is all done with nets. ”

“ The hunters pull up the dry grass in a narrow belt to leeward, and place their nets along the strip, each man's net being joined to his neighbor's, so that a continuous fence of nets is formed across one side of the hunting-ground. ”

“ The women excel in making netted bags of all sizes. The large bags, which are used by the women to carry their burdens in, and also as cradles, were interesting as the only article I had met which was also made by the aborigines of Australia. ”

“ They carefully pull out every hair from their beards, and at times shave off their eyebrows and the hair from their temples; and most wear ornaments in their noses and tightly plaited armlets, which they make to serve them as pockets. ”

“ The women wear a decent girdle or petticoat, reaching from the hips to the knees, are tattooed very closely, pierce their ears with many holes, load them down with ornaments, and shave their heads when they are married. ”