“ For war the natives smear themselves in grotesque fashion with lime or ochres, and in some parts hold in their teeth against the chin a face-like mask, supposed to strike terror into the foe, against whom they advance warily (if not timidly) , yelling and blowing their war-trumpets. The war canoe (which is a long, narrow dug-out outrigger, capable of holding twenty-eight men) is only a transport, for they never fight in it. ”

“ As a rule elsewhere each family has its independent dwelling. On the north coast the houses are not built on piles; the walls, of bamboo or palm branches, are very low, and the projecting roof nearly reaches the ground; a barrier at the entrance keeps out pigs and dogs. A sort of table or bench stands outside, used by the men only, for meals and for the subsequent siesta. In east New Guinea sometimes the houses are two-storeyed, the lower part being used for stores. ”

“ Possessions, such as gardens, houses, pigs, &c., belong to individuals and not to the community, and pass to the owner’s heirs, who differ in relationship in different districts. The land within certain boundaries belongs to the tribe, but a member may take possession of any unappropriated portion. There are certain degrees of relationship within which a man may not marry. In some districts he may not marry into his own village, or into his mother’s tribe; in others he may select a wife from certain tribes only. ”

“ The child belongs sometimes to the mother’s, sometimes to the father’s tribe. The Papuan woman, who is, as a rule, more modest than the Polynesian, is the household drudge, and does the greater part of the outdoor work, but the man assists in clearing new gardens and in digging and planting the soil.
In western New Guinea, according to the Dutch missionaries, there is a vague notion of a universal spirit, practically represented by several malevolent powers, as Manoin, the most powerful, who resides in the woods ”

“ The Papuans are mostly ignorant of iron, but work skilfully with axes of stone or tridacna shell and bone chisels, cutting down trees 20 in. in diameter. Two men working on a tree trunk, one making a cut with the adze lengthwise and the other chopping off the piece across, will soon hollow out a large canoe. Every man has a stone axe, each village generally owning a large one. Their knives are of bamboo hardened by fire. In digging they use the pointed stick. In British New Guinea alone is the man catcher (a rattan loop at the end of a handle with a pith spike projecting into it) met with. ”

“ All Papuans believe that within them resides an invisible other self, or spirit, which may occasionally leave the body in the hours of sleep and after death hovers for some period at least round the scenes of its embodied life. ”

“ In the north and north-east of New Guinea ancestor worship is widely practised. Amulets are worn to ensure success in buying, selling, hunting, fishing and in war, as well as for protection against evil. Circumcision is practised in some regions. Although some of the coast peoples are nominally Mahommedans, and some few converts to Christianity have been made, the vast majority of Papuans remain pagan.
The dead are disposed of in various ways. ”

“ Little houses are frequently erected over the grave as a habitation for the spirit. Soon after death food is offered to the departed—with an infant a calabash of its mother’s milk—and that he may have no wants, his earthly possessions, after being broken, are laid near his resting place. ”

“ The constitution of society is everywhere simple. The people live in village communities whose members appear to be more or less inter-related. There are no priests and no hereditary chiefs, though among the more advanced tribes rank is hereditary. ”

“ Physically they are negroid in type, and while tribes allied to the Papuans have been traced through Timor, Flores and the highlands of the Malay Peninsula to the Deccan of India, these “Oriental negroes,” as they have been called, have many curious resemblances with some East African tribes. Besides the appearance of the hair, the raised cicatrices, the belief in omens and sorcery, the practices for testing the courage of youths, &c., they are equally rude, merry and boisterous, but amenable to discipline, and with decided artistic tastes and faculty. ”

“ As a protection against these the people construct—having first with much ceremony chosen a tree for the purpose—certain rude images called karwars, each representing a recently dead progenitor, whose spirit is then invoked to occupy the image and protect them against their enemies and give success to their undertakings. ”

“ The spirit is supposed not to leave the body immediately, and a corpse is either buried for a time, and then disinterred and the bones cleaned and deposited in or near the deceased’s dwelling or in some distant cave ”

“ Those things which belong to a person, as the parts of his body, &c., take the pronominal suffix; a thing possessed merely for use would not take it. Thus, in Fijian the word luve means either a son or a daughter—one’s own child, and it takes the possessive pronoun suffixed, as luvena ”

“ Several of the above practices are common to the Australians, who, though generally inferior, have many points of resemblance (osteological and other) with Papuans, to whom the extinct Tasmanians were still more closely allied. It may be that from an indigenous Negrito stock of the Indian archipelago both negroes and Papuans sprang, and that the latter are an original cross between the Negrito and the immigrating Caucasian who passed eastward to found the great Polynesian race. ”

“ Spirits of evil, but not of good, therefore require to be propitiated. The powers of nature—thunder, lightning and storm, all supposed to be caused by evil and angry spirits — are held in the greatest dread. ”

“ Papuans are very fond of music, using Pan-pipes, a Jew’s harp of the Papuans’ own fabrication, and the flute; on occasions of ceremony the drum only is used—this instrument being Music. always open at one end and tapped by the fingers. To the accompaniment of the drum, dancing—as a rhythmic but stationary movement of the feet or an evolutionary march—almost invariably goes, but rarely singing. ”

“ Yams, taro and sweet potatoes constitute in some districts the main food of the people, while in others sago is the staple diet. Forest fruits and vegetables are also eaten. Maize and rice—which are not indigenous—are eagerly sought Food. ”

“ As a rule the Papuans have no intoxicating drink and do not know the art of fermenting palm-sap or cane-juice. Tobacco is indigenous in some parts, and is smoked everywhere, except on the north-east coast and on the islands, where its use is quite unknown. In some few districts a species of clay is eaten. ”

“ In a few districts villages are built at a short distance off the shore, as a protection against raids by the inland tribes. The interior villages are frequently situated on hill crests, or on top of steep faced rocks as difficult of access as possible, whence a clear view all round can be had. ”

“ For the women it is simply a decoration. Men are not tattooed till they have killed some one. Raised cicatrices usually take the place of tattooing with the darker races. Rosenberg says the scars on the breast and arms register the number of sea-voyages made.
The Papuans build excellent canoes and other boats, and in some districts there are professional boat-builders of great skill, the best craft coming from East Cape and the Louisiades. ”

“ The sexes eat apart. In the interior salt is difficult to get, and sea-water, which is carried inland in hollow bamboos, is used in cooking in place of it. Salt, too, is obtained from the ashes of wood saturated by sea-water. ”

“ The typical Papuan is distinctly tall, far exceeding the average Malay height, and is seldom shorter, often taUer, than the European. He is strongly built, somewhat “spur-heeled.” He varies in colour from a sooty-brown to a black, little less intense than that of the darkest negro. ”

“ His hair is black and frizzly, worn generally in a mop, often of large dimensions, but sometimes worked into plaits with grease or mud. On some islands the men collect their hair into small bunches, and carefully bind each bunch round with fine vegetable fibre from the roots up to within about two inches from the end. ”

“ These dwell chiefly in the moon, and are particularly active at full moon. The houses which they haunt, and beneath or near which their bodies are buried, are deserted from time to time, especially by a newly-married couple or by women before child-birth. ”

“ He once counted the bunches on a young man’s head, and found nearly seven hundred. There is usually little hair on the face, but chest, legs and fore-arms are generally hirsute, the hair short and crisp. ”