Papuans

“ The natives of New Guinea are Papuans and the island is indeed the centre of that race, which is found more or less mixed with other races from the island of Flores as far as Fiji. Though the Papuans in New Guinea itself have been in many places altered by immigrant races, for instance by Malays in the extreme West, and by Polynesian and Melanesian influences in the South and East, there yet remain large regions,25 particularly in the Western half of the country, including the district visited by this expedition, where the true Papuan stock holds its own. ”

“ As Governor Murray truly states in his interesting book "Papua, or British New Guinea," the most valuable asset the colony possesses is not its all but unexplored mineral wealth or the potential value of its splendid forests and rich soil, but it is the Papuans themselves, and let us add that under the leadership of the high-minded, self-sacrificing and well-trained civil servants of Great Britain the dawn of Papuan civilization is fast breaking into the sunlight of a happiness such as has come to but few of the erstwhile savage races of the earth. ”

“ On the whole the Papuans are somewhat shorter than the Polynesians, the average height being about sixty-two to sixty-four inches. They are well proportioned, lithe, and active, and display surprising skill both in climbing trees and in using the feet for prehensile purposes. Most Papuans have a very dark skin, but never of that shiny black peculiar to the Shilluks of the White Nile, the Wolofs of Senegal, and some other African peoples. ”

“ I myself had at first been inclined to sneer at these reports, but Monckton, the Resident Magistrate, with his superior knowledge of the Papuans, as the natives of New Guinea are called, was sure that there was some truth in the reports, as the Papuan who has not come much in contact with the [164] white man is singularly truthful though guilty of exaggeration. ”

“ Like the children of more civilised races, the young Papuans are fond of imitating their elders. The boys like to be seen walking about with men, to copy their swaggering walk, and to sit about smoking idly and watch the women at work. The little girls sometimes contrive to make grass garments like those worn by the women; they make small dolls’ houses in which they themselves, or infants still smaller than they, are the dolls, and they like to be seen baling out the canoes or carrying sand for the houses. ”

“ The Papuans are so called from Papua, or New Guinea. They occupy the western islands, and are not generally so tall and handsome in person as the Malays. They are of a dark-brown color, with dark, curly hair of different shades, and appear to be allied to the negro; but have plump, pleasant features, unlike the negro and the aborigines of Australia. The Malays all speak one language, with dialectic differences, all musical and liquid, like the 12Italian. Every word ends in a vowel. ”

“ Their habitations 25in the tree-tops were also decked with human skulls, which led to the belief that the taste of human flesh was not unknown to them.
The Papuans were considered great adepts at cooking their fellow-men, and with them man-eating, plain, unmistakable and vile, existed up to a very late period. It is intimated that some of these natives have not yet lost their relish for human food. The Papuans who live inland are described as frightful and hideous in appearance, making themselves more so by the peculiar manner of arranging their hair, which they form into enormous bunches. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The modifications in the face are more complicated. Papuans are found at the extremities of Polynesia, as far north as the Sandwich Islands, as far south as New Zealand, and as far east as Easter Island, where they have been carried by voluntary or accidental migrations, or in slavery. ”

“ O. C. Stone, and the missionaries who have recently explored the southeastern extremity of New Guinea, have been greatly struck by the apparently quite distinct races they have found there. As far eastward as the head of the gulf of Papua (on the east side of Torres Straits) the typical Papuans prevail, the natives of the Katow River being described as nearly black, with Jewish noses, and woolly hair, using bows and arrows, and living in houses a hundred feet long elevated on posts, in all respects exactly agreeing with the prevalent type in the western portion of the island. ”

“ I admire these Papuans here for many things: I like the air of self-reliance and dignity they so often exhibit; and they, like all native races, have an instinct towards their friends. They are, however, speaking generally and of the many various races, doomed to a not distant extinction.
Ere we left Herbertshöhe I went to bid adieu to Frau Wolff, and we had a long talk. I asked her if she was not afraid to live alone at their inland plantation, but she said she had not the smallest fear of the natives, and was sure they would never harm her. ”

“ The bulk of the natives are Papuans, who are not unlike the Negroes of African Guinea, but Malay settlements are numerous on the western coast. The Papuans mainly are at a low stage of culture. Some are fierce and untractable, others friendly in disposition. ”

“ It is separated from Australia only by Torres Strait, and, as we have seen, a certain amount of intercourse has taken place between the Papuans of the south of New Guinea and the natives who inhabit the north of Australia. Fertile in the vegetable kingdom, it possesses one or two animals which have the greatest interest for the naturalist, such as the tree-kangaroo, the crowned pigeon, and the bird of paradise. It is equally interesting to the ethnologist as being the home of the Papuan race.
Taken as a race, they are very fine examples of savage humanity, tall, well-shaped, and powerful. ”

“ When we were trying to persuade the headman to allow the women to be produced, it was a strange experience to be using the Papuans, of whose language we knew only the rudiments, as interpreters to an even less known people. ”

“ If we look over the globe for the nearest allies of the Papuans, we find them undoubtedly in equatorial and southern Africa, where alone there is an extensive and varied race of dark-colored, frizzly-haired people. ”

“ The Papuans of the Mimika district may be divided into two classes or tribes: those who live in the villages on the lower waters of the river and make periodical migrations to the sea; and those who live on the upper waters of the river near the foot of the mountains and who never go down to the coast. ”

“ In the interior of the large island of Papua, or New Guinea, there exists a race of men called Haraforas, who live in trees, to which they mount by means of a notched piece of wood, which they draw after them, by way of guarding against surprize.
The principal commerce of the Papuans is with the Chinese, of whom they purchase their different instruments and utensils. They give in exchange ambergris, sea snails, tortoiseshell, small pearls, birds of Paradise, lories, and other birds, which they stuff with great dexterity. The women appear to be industrious ”

“ Returning to the Papuan lands proper, in the insular groups west of New Guinea we enter one of the most entangled ethnical regions in the world. Here are, no doubt, a few islands such as the Aru group, mainly inhabited by full-blood Papuans, men who furnished Wallace with the models on which he built up his true Papuan type, which has since been vainly assailed by so many later observers. But in others—Ceram, Buru, Timor, and so on to Flores—diverse ethnical and linguistic elements are intermingled in almost hopeless confusion. ”

“ 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. ”

“ From the description of them which has been given in this and the two preceding chapters it will be seen that the conditions of life of the Papuans are as primitive as those of any people now living in the world. There are very few other places, where you can find a people who153 neither make nor possess any metal and who have no knowledge of pottery. The only vessels that they have for holding water are scraped-out coconuts and simple pieces of bamboo. ”

“ The hour just before dawn appears to be a favourite time for an attack amongst Papuans, and we found evidence afterwards that these natives had camped for a portion of the night in some numbers in the scrub at the edge of the clearing, and had denied themselves the comfort of a fire, so that their presence might not be disclosed, making small shelters of branches to protect them from the chill mountain air. ”

“ The question of the origin and ethnography of the Papuans presents almost insuperable difficulties, and has not yet been satisfactorily solved, although it seems probable that the numerous tribes, notwithstanding their striking physical divergencies, are merely varieties of a general type and offshoots of a common stock. Whether they form an isolated and independent branch of the human family, or are akin to the dolichocephalous, dark-skinned, crisp-haired races of Africa and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, as Huxley suggests, is undetermined and perhaps indeterminable. ”

“ The Papuans are tillers of the soil, and especially cultivate sago, maize, and tobacco; occasionally they are hunters and fishers, and are then very adroit in laying snares and poisoning waters; their favourite weapons are the bow and arrow with flint heads. Excellent boat-builders, they merely do a coasting trade, and while understanding well how to handle a sail, rarely ever venture into the open sea. ”

“ You could not follow the words, but the bowing of the head by the natives, and the opening of the New Testaments, would mark the times of prayer and of reading the lessons. How often one wishes the Papuans were direct descendants of the Sweet Singer of Israel; but, alas! they are not even distant relatives, and most of the Samoans can claim but little closer kinship, and so cannot help the Papuan much. Tuneful singing cannot be expected from a people with a range of about three notes, especially when they do not always use even these three. They will chant a hymn on one note only. ”

“ Papuans.—A remarkable feature presented by the Papuans, is the enormous bulk of their half-woolly hair. Their skin is dark brown, their hair black, and their beard, which is [519] scanty, is, as well as their eyebrows and eyes, of the same colour. Though they have rather flat noses, thick lips and broad cheekbones, their countenance is by no means unpleasant. The women are more ugly than the men, their withered figures, hanging breasts, and masculine features render them disagreeable to the sight, and even the young girls have a far from attractive look. ”

“ The people are said to closely resemble those of Haruku, Saparua, and Nusalaut. The total population is given at only fourteen thousand. A few are Christians, and two or three native schoolmasters from Amboina are employed there. Papuans are said to live on the most eastern island. Large quantities of tripang are gathered on the shallow coral banks of these low islands, and in the sea the dugong, Halicore dugong, Cuv., is seen. ”

“ Very characteristic of the Papuans are the houses which are confined to the use of the men. These houses are the focus of the social life of the men, and as religion among savages is largely social usage, it is also in connection with these structures that most of their religious observances are held.
The initiation of lads into manhood is accompanied with sacred ceremonies in some of the Papuan tribes, but, so far [62] as is known, by none of the Melanesians in New Guinea. Masks are usually, perhaps invariably, worn at these ceremonies, and the bull-roarer is swung and shown to the lads. ”

“ The indigenous Papuans, physically and morally inferior to these Polynesian invaders, have been driven from the coast, where the land is comparatively healthy and fertile, and have permitted the intruders to establish themselves and multiply. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”