Chapter XXXI: Section III: III. Papuan and Melanesian

Three Melanesian languages are spoken in the country around the lower courses of the St. Joseph and Aroa rivers, and are thus in immediate contact with the Papuan languages spoken about the upper waters. These Melanesian languages are the Mekeo, Kuni and Pokau. It is, therefore, of some importance to note whether any apparently non-Melanesian elements in these languages may be traced to the influence of the neighbouring Papuan tongues.

In Grammar the only non-Melanesian characteristic which appears is the preceding of the substantive by the genitive, but in the vocabularies a few correspondences are found.

Bamboo Pokau, _ileile_; Fuyuge, _ele_; Afoa, _ila_. Sinaugoro, _tobo_; Korono, _tobo_. Kuni, _bioni_; Mekeo, _piengi_; Fuyuge, _bione_. Big Kuni, _galoa_; Afoa, _kalowo_. Bird Mekeo, _inei_; Afoa, _kile_; Oru Lopiko, _ite_. Breast Pokau, _pede_; Oru Lopiko, _apetei_. Chest Mekeo, _olanga_; Oru Lopiko, _ulako_. Couch Kuni, _itsifu_; Tauata, _itsifu_. Crocodile Roro, _puaea_; Kabadi, _ua_; Fuyuge, _fua_. Dog Pokau, _oveka_; Kuni, _ojame_, _obeka_; Fuyuge, _oi(e_); Afoa, _kovela_. Fork Kuni, _ini_; Tauata, _ini_. Girdle Kuni, _afafa_; Tauata, _afafe_. Hammock Kuni, _totoe_; Fuyuge, _sosoe_; Tauata, _totolo_; Oru Lopiko, _totoki_. Head Mekeo, _kangia_; Oru Lopiko, _kakuo_. Hill Mekeo, _iku_; Fuyuge, _ku(me_). House Mekeo, _ea_; Fuyuge, _e(me_). Knife Mekeo, _aiva_; Kuni, _atsiva_; Tauata, _tiveya_; Oru Lopiko, _vetsi_. Many Kuni, _talelea_; Afoa, _talele_; Fuyuge, _talele_. Rope Mekeo, _ue_; Korona, _yu_. Spoon Kuni, _nima_; Tauata, _dima_. Sweet Potato Kuni, _gubea_; Fuyuge, _kupa_, _gupe_; Afoa, _gupe_. White Mekeo, _foenga_; Korona, _foa_.

But there are many apparently non-Melanesian words in Mekeo, Kuni and Pokau, which are different in each language, and cannot be traced to the neighbouring Papuan. The inference is that such words may be remnants of other Papuan tongues spoken in the St. Joseph and Aroa Basins, which have been absorbed by the immigrant Melanesian speech.

Only three Melanesian words in the list appear to have been adopted by the Papuans. These are: Tauata _nau_ (_pe_), earthen dish, which is Kuni, Motu, Pokau, &c., _nau_; Fuyuge asi boat, Pokau and Motu asi; and Fuyuge _bara_, paddle, the Motu, Kabadi _bara_, Mekeo _fanga_, oar. The Fuyuge _kokole_ fowl is also probably the Mekeo _kokolo_.

NOTES

[1] The photographs of skulls, articles of dress and ornament, implements and weapons were made in London after my return.

[2] The Geographical Society's map used by me is somewhat confusing as regards the upper reaches of the St. Joseph or Angabunga river and the rivers flowing into and forming it. The Fathers' map makes the St. Joseph river commence under that name at the confluence, at a point a little to the west of 8° 30' S. Lat. and 147° E. Long., of the river Alabula (called in one of its upper parts Loloipa), flowing from the north, and the river Aduala, flowing from Mt. Albert Edward in the north-east; and this arrangement, which is practically in accord with a map appended to the British New Guinea _Annual Report_ for June, 1900, is, I think, probably the most suitable and correct one. The Aduala is the river the upper part of which is in the Geographical Society's map called Angabunga. The Fathers' map shows the river Kea flowing into the Aduala at a distance of about two miles above the confluence of the latter with the Alabula; but, according to the Report map, this distance is about 12 miles.

[3] Note the change from the Mafulu (Papuan) pronunciation _Mambule_ to the Kuni (Melanesian) pronunciation _Mafulu_ and the similar change from the Mafulu _Ambo_ to the Kuni _Ajoa_.

[4] See Dr. Seligmann's "Hunterian Lecture" in the _Lancet_ for February 17, 1906, p. 427; Seligmann and Strong in the _Geographical Journal_ for March, 1906, pp. 233 and 236; also Dr. Seligmann's "Classification of the Natives of British New Guinea" in the _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_ for December, 1909, p. 329.

[5] _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 29.

[6] _Ibid._ p. 31.

[7] _Lancet_, February 17, 1906, p. 427.

[8] _Geographical Journal_ for September, 1908, p. 274.

[9] _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 32.

[10] British New Guinea _Annual Report_ for June, 1906, p. 29.

[11] British New Guinea _Annual Report_ for June 30, 1906, pp. 85 to 93.

[12] _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 33.

[13] Apparently bows and arrows are not found among the tribes of the Lower Mambare river (_Annual Report_ for June, 1897, Appendix C, p. 7.)

[14] _Annual Report_ for June, 1894, p. 32.

[15] _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_ for December, 1909, p. 329.

[16] _Annual Report_ for June, 1897, Appendix C, p. 7.

[17] _Geographical Journal_ for October, 1900, p. 422.

[18] _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_ for December, 1909, p. 330.

[19] _British New Guinea_, p. 94.

[20] _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 32.

[21] _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_ for December, 1909, p. 329.

[22] Seligmann and Strong--_Geographical Journal_ for March, 1906, p. 232.

[23] Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 27.

[24] Dr. Strong has referred (_Geographical Journal_ for September, 1908, p. 272) to the considerable areas of open grass country at the source of the St. Joseph river; and in his remarks which appeared in the _Annual Report_ for June, 1906, p. 28, he referred to the same matter, and spoke of the valleys being for the most part less steep than those of the Kuni district.

[25] I must state that Plate 2 represents a scene taken from a spot near to Deva-deva, which, though close to what is regarded as the boundary between the Kuni and Mafulu areas, is in fact just within the former. The general appearance of the scenery is, however, distinctly Mafulu.

[26] Dr. Strong's measurements of seven Mafulu men referred to by Dr. Seligmann (_Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute_, Vol. 39, p. 329) showed an average stature of 59 1/2 inches, and an average cephalic index of 80.0. It will be noticed that my figures show a somewhat higher average stature, but that my average cephalic index is the same. Dr. Seligmann here speaks of the Mafulu as being almost as short as the men of Inavaurene, and even more round-headed.

[27] This is the index calculated on average lengths and breadths. The average of the indices is 83.8, the difference arising from the omission in working out of each index of second points of decimals.

[28] Dr. Keith thinks they are all skulls of males. They are now in College Museum, and are numbered 1186.32, 1186.33 and 1186.34 in the College Catalogue.

[29] _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p.16.

[30] Dr. Haddon refers (_Geographical Journal_, Vol. 16, p.291) to the finding by the Mission Fathers of "another type of native, evidently an example of the convex-nosed Papuan," in the upper waters of the Alabula river. I gather from the habitat of these natives that they must have been either Ambo or Oru Lopiku. I should be surprised to hear the Semitic nose was common in either of those areas.

[31] Dr. Seligmann, in speaking of the Koiari people, refers to an occasional reddish or gingery tinge of facial hair (_Melanesians of British New Guinea,_, p. 29). I never noticed this among the Mafulu.

[32] Since writing the above, I have learnt that some of the dwarf people found by the expedition into Dutch New Guinea organised by the British Ornithologists' Union had brown hair. Mr. Goodfellow tells me that "the hair of some of the pygmies was decidedly _dark_ brown"; and Dr. Wollaston gives me the following extract from his diary for March 1, 1911, relating to twenty-four pygmies then under observation:--"Hair of three men distinctly _not_ black, a sort of dirty rusty brown or rusty black colour--all others black-haired."

[33] This plate and the plates of dancing aprons were produced by first drawing the objects, and then photographing the drawings. It would have been more satisfactory if I could have photographed the objects themselves. But they were much crumpled, and I was advised that with many of them the camera would not indicate differences of colour, and that in one or two of them even the design itself would not come out clearly.

[34] Dr. Stapf, to whom I showed one of the armlets, No. 4, the materials of which are said to be the same as those used for this belt, said that the split cane-like material is a strip from the periphery of the petiole or stem of a palm, and that the other material is sclerenchyma fibre from the petiole or rhizome of a fern, and not that of a creeping plant. I may say that I felt a doubt at the time as to the complete accuracy of the information given to me concerning the vegetable materials used for the manufacture of various articles, and there may well be errors as to these.

[35] Dr. Stapf, to whom I showed one of these belts, says that it is made of the separated woody strands from the stem of a climbing plant (possibly one of the Cucurbitaceae or Aristolochiaceae).

[36] Dr. Stapf, having inspected one of the belts, thinks this material is composed of split strips of sclerenchyma fibre from the petiole or rhizome of a fern, and not that of a creeping plant.

[37] Dr. Stapf, to whom I showed a written description which I had made of the plant, and who has also examined the belt, is of opinion that it belongs to the Diplocaulobium section of Dendrobium.

[38] I have examined at the British Museum a belt made by the dwarf mountain people found by the recent expedition organised by the British Ornithologists' Union. This belt is made in hank-like form, remarkably similar to that of my Mafulu belt No. 7, though in other respects it differs from the latter, and it is much smaller. The only other thing of similar hank-like form which I have been able to find at the Museum is a small belt or head ornament (it is said to be the latter) made by Sakai people of the Malay Peninsula.

[39] Chalmers describes a young woman in the foot hills behind Port Moresby who "had a net over her shoulders and covering her breasts as a token of mourning" (_Work and Adventures in New Guinea_ p. 26). Compare also the Koita custom referred to by Dr. Seligmann (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 164) for a widow to wear two netted vests. The same custom is found at Hula.

[40] See reference to this question in the _Annual Report_ for June, 1906, p. 13.

[41] I shall from time to time have to refer to the croton, and in doing so I am applying to the plant in question the name commonly given to it; but Dr. Stapf tells me that the plant so commonly called is really a codioeum.

[42] The Rev. Mr. Dauncey, of the L.M.S. station at Delena (a Roro village on the coast) told me that in his village it is a common thing for a native to pick up a small white snake about 12 inches long, and pass it through the hole in his nose; and that the Pokau people sometimes pass the tip of the tail of a larger black snake into these holes, the intention of both practices being to keep the hole open. In neither of these cases is the practice a part of an original ceremony connected with nose-piercing, such as that of Mafulu; but it may well be that all the practices have superstitious origins.

[43] There is apparently no corresponding ceremony among the Koita natives (Seligmann, _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 72), nor among the Roro people (_Id_., p. 256), and I do not believe there is any such in Mekeo.

[44] I do not think these pigtails are used as ornaments by the Roro and Mekeo people, though Dr. Seligmann says that a Koita bridegroom wears them in his ears on his wedding day (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 78).

[45] Dr. Stapf, to whose inspection I have submitted two of these combs, said they were made of palm-wood--split and shaped pieces from the periphery of the petiole or stem of a palm--and that the material used for binding the teeth of the combs together was sclerenchyma fibre from the petiole or rhizome of a fern.

[46] These earrings are, I think, sometimes found in Mekeo; but they have all come from the mountains.

[47] See note on p. 27 as to the way in which these plates have been produced.

[48] Only the two ends of the pattern have been copied, the intermediate part being the same throughout, as is shown.

[49] I am unable to state the various forms and varieties of these vegetables, but I give the following native names for plants of the yam, taro, and sweet potato types:--Yams include _tsiolo, avanve, buba, aligarde, vaule, vonide, poloide_ and _ilavuide_. Taros include _auvari, elume, lupeliolu, kamulepe, ivuvana_ and _fude_. Sweet potatoes include _asi, bili, dube, saisasumulube_ and _amb' u tolo_ (this last name means "ripe banana," and the reason suggested for the name is that the potato tastes rather like a ripe banana).

[50] Dr. Stapf says the wood is that of a rather soft-wooded dicotyledonous tree (possibly urticaceous).

[51] The Chirima boring instrument figured by Mr. Monckton (_Annual Report_ for June 30, 1906) is rather of the Mafulu type, but in this case the fly-wheel, instead of being a flat piece of wood, appears to be made of a split reed bound on either side of the upright cane shaft.

[52] Hammocks are also used in the plains and on the coast, but only, I think, to a very limited extent; whereas in the mountains, of at all events the Mafulu district, they are used largely.

[53] I had a considerable quantity of impedimenta, and unfortunately my condition made it necessary for me to be carried down also; and I had great difficulty in getting enough carriers.

[54] Compare the differently shaped mortar found in the Yodda valley and described and figured in the _Annual Report_ for June, 1904, p. 31.

[55] The practice of destroying the pigs' eyes in the Kuni district is referred to in the _Annual Report_ for June, 1900, p. 61.

[56] This is subject to the qualification which arises from the fact (stated below) that a member of one clan who migrates to a village of another clan retains his _imbele_ relationship to the members of his own old clan, although he has by his change of residence obtained a similar relationship to the members of the clan in whose village he has settled.

[57] See _Annual Report_ for June, 1910, which on p. 5 speaks of "several villages round about the Mission, known as Sivu."

[58] Compare the Koita system, under which under certain conditions the son of a chief's sister might succeed him (Seligmann, _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 52). Such a thing could not take place among the Mafulu.

[59] I do not know how far this pig-killer may be compared with the Roro _ovia akiva_, or chief of the knife, referred to by Dr. Seligmann (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 219). The Mafulu pig-killer cannot be regarded as being even a quasi-chief, and his office is not hereditary. It is noticeable also that he is the man who kills the pigs, whereas the _ovia akiva_ only cuts up the bodies after the pigs have been killed by someone else.

[60] I do not suggest that these defences are peculiar to the Mafulu area. I believe they are used by other mountain natives of the Central District.

[61] Though this curious-shaped hood in front of a house is apparently a speciality of the mountains, so far as British New Guinea is concerned, I do not suggest that it does not exist elsewhere. In fact, some of the native houses which I have seen in the Rubiana Lagoon district of the Solomon Islands had a somewhat similar projection, though in them the front wall of the house, with its little door-opening, was carried round below the outer edge of the hood, which thus formed part of the roof of the interior, instead of being merely a shelter over the outside platform, as is the case in Mafulu.

[62] Dr. Haddon refers (_Geographical Journal, Vol. XVI._, p. 422) to conical ground houses with elliptical and circular bases found in villages on the top of steep hills behind the Mekeo district and on the southern spur of Mt. Davidson, and says that in some places, as on the Aduala affluent of the Angabunga (_i.e._, St. Joseph's) river, the houses are oblong, having a short ridge pole. I think that the elliptical houses to which he refers have probably been Kuni houses, to which his description could well be applied, and that the oblong houses have been Mafulu. The villages with very narrow streets, and the houses of which are, he says, built partly on the crest and partly on the slope, are also in this respect typically Kuni.

[63] This photograph had to be taken from an awkward position above, from which I had to point the camera downwards to the bridge.

[64] See also description of suspension bridge over Vanapa river in lower hill districts given in _Annual Report_ for June, 1889, p. 38.

[65] Compare the Koita system under which the owner of the house owns the site of it also, and the latter passes on his death to his heirs (Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 89.)

[66] See note 1 on p. 128.

[67] Father Egedi describes in _Anthropos_ a Kuni method of preparing a fruit similar to the one described here, and which also gives rise to terrible smells. The tree is referred to by him as being a bread-fruit; and Dr. Stapf thinks that the _malage_ may possibly be one of the Artocarpus genus, of which some have smooth or almost smooth fruit, and some are said to have poisonous sap, and the seeds of many of which are eaten, or of some closely allied type.

[68] The information obtained by me at Mafulu did not go beyond the actual facts as stated by me. I cannot, however, help suspecting that there is, or has been, a close connection between the building of anemone and the holding of a big feast, and that the latter may be compared with the tabu ceremonial of the Koita described by Dr. Seligmann (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, pp. 141 and 145 _et seq_.). Indeed there are some elements of similarity between the two feasts.

[69] Compare the Roro custom for the messengers carrying an invitation to important feasts to take with them bunches of areca nut, which are hung in the _marea_ of the local groups of the invited _itsubu_ (Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 218).

[70] See note on p. 256 as to the use by me of the terms "grave," "bury" and "burial."

[71] _Ibid._

[72] It is the custom among the Kuni people when any woman (not merely the wife of a chief) has her first baby for the women of her own village, and probably of some neighbouring villages also, to assemble in the village and to attack her house and the village club-house with darts, which the women throw with their hands at the roofs. At Ido-ido I saw that the roofs of the club-house and of some of the ordinary houses had a number of these darts sticking into them. The darts were made out of twigs of trees, and were about five or six feet long; and each of them had a bunch of grass tied in a whorl at or near its head, and some of them had a similar bunch similarly tied at or near its middle. See also Dr. Seligmann's reference (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 298) to the Roro custom for warriors, when returning from a successful campaign, to throw their spears at the roof and sides of the marea. In Mekeo there is no corresponding ceremony on the birth of a first child; but men, women and children of the village collect by the house and sing all through the night; and in the morning the woman's husband will kill a pig or dog for them, which they cook and eat without ceremony.

[73] Dr. Seligmann refers to this custom among the Roro people (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 256), and there is no doubt that it exists among the Mekeo people also. Father Desnoes, of the Sacred Heart Mission, told me that in Mekeo, though the pig used to be given when the boy adopted his perineal band at the age of four, five, six, or seven, it is now generally given earlier. The pig is there regarded as the price paid for the child, and is called the child's _engifunga_.

[74] Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 67.

[75] Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 71.

[76] _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 21.

[77] In Mekeo such a devolution of chieftainship is the occasion for a very large feast.

[78] This ceremony is different from the Mekeo ceremony on the elevation by a chief of his successor to a joint chieftainship, of which some particulars were given to me by Father Egedi; but there is an element of similarity to a Mekeo custom for the new chief, after the pigs have been killed and partly cut up by someone else, to cut the backs of the pigs in slices.

[79] According to Dr. Seligmann, among the Koita the forbidden degrees of relationship extend to third cousins (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 82); whereas it will be seen that among the Mafulu it only extends, as between people of the same generation, to first cousins. But a Mafulu native who was grandson of the common ancestor would be prohibited from marrying his first cousin once removed (great-granddaughter of that ancestor) or his first cousin twice removed (great-great-granddaughter of that ancestor).

[80] But see p. 178, note 1.

[81] Half-a-dozen years ago, before open systematic killing and cannibalism were checked, it was a Kuni custom, when a woman died in her confinement, to bury the living baby with the dead mother. I have not heard of this custom in Mafulu, and do not know whether or not it exists, or has existed, there; but as regards matters of this sort the Mafulu and the Kuni are very similar. My statement that there is no burying alive must be taken subject to the possibility of this custom.

[82] This custom is found elsewhere.

[83] From Dr. Haddon's distribution chart in Vol. XVI. of _The Geographical Journal_, it will be seen that the Mafulu district is just about at the junction between his spear area and his bow and arrow area.

[84] I have never seen the animal called the "Macgregor bear," and I do not know what it is. The Fathers assured me it was a bear; but in view of the great unlikelihood of this, I consulted the authorities at the Natural History Museum, and they think it is probably one of the marsupials. It is named after Sir William Macgregor. It is found in the mountains, where the forest is very thick.

[85] Compare the Motumotu (Toaripi) practice of rubbing the dogs' mouths with a special plant, referred to by Chalmers (_Pioneering in New Guinea_, p. 305).

[86] The birds of paradise which dance in trees include, I was told, what the Fathers called the "Red," the "Blue," the "Black," the "Superb" and the "Six-feathered." Those which dance on the ground include the "Magnificent."

[87] In Mekeo the weir is made with wicker-work, at the openings in which basket fish-traps are placed.

[88] _Pioneering in New Guinea_, pp. 3 and 4.

[89] Dr. Stapf tells me that taro is usually propagated by means of tubers or division of crowns, that is that either the whole tuber is planted or it is cut up, as potatoes are done, into pieces, each of which has an eye, and each of which is planted. It would appear that the Mafulu method, as explained to me, amounts to much the same thing, the only difference being that instead of planting a crown, or a piece with an eye from which a fresh shoot will proceed, they let that shoot first grow into a young plant and then transplant the latter.

[90] I have examined at the British Museum some net work of the dwarf people of the interior of Dutch New Guinea, brought home by the recent expedition organised by the British Ornithologists' Union, and found it to be similar in stitch to the Mafulu network.

[91] The 1910 comet was regarded by some of the Mekeo people with terror, because they thought it presaged a descent of the mountain natives upon themselves.

[92] See _Evolution in Art_ (1895), p. 264; and _Geographical Journal_, Vol. 16, p. 433.

[93] I would point out, however, that the Inawae clan is part of, and is probably largely representative of, the original Inawae _ngopu_ group of the great Biofa tribe of Mekeo, and that this Inawae group is rather widely scattered over Mekeo (see Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 321 and pp. 369 to 372); so that the information obtained is probably not really of a merely local character.

[94] Sir W. Macgregor, in describing (_Ann. Rep._, June, 1890, p. 47) the movements and actions of the Kiwai (Fly river mouth) natives prior to a canoe attack by them upon him, says: "The canoes darted hither and thither, as if performing a circus dance or a Highland reel, and all these movements were accompanied by the chant of a paean that sounded as if composed to imitate the cooing--soft, plaintive, and melodious--of the pigeons of their native forests"; and he refers to the performance as a "canoe choral dance." It was, of course, not a dance in the sense in which I am dealing with the subject here; but the apparently imitative character of the singing is perhaps worth noticing in connection with this dancing question. See also the description (_Country Life_, March 4, 1911) by Mr. Walter Goodfellow, the leader of the recent expedition into Dutch New Guinea, of the dancing and accompanying singing of the Mimika natives whom he met there, and his suggestion that the final calls of these songs were derived from that of the greater paradise bird. Mr. Goodfellow has since told me with reference to these Mimika songs that he was forcibly struck by the resemblance of the termination of _most_ of the songs to the common cry of the greater bird of paradise, and said: "They finished with the same abrupt note, repeated three times (like the birds)." Dr. Haddon has been good enough to lend me the manuscript of his notes on the dances performed in the islands of Torres Straits, which will probably have appeared in Vol. IV. of the _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_ before this book is published. Here again I find interesting records of imitative dancing. One dance imitates the swimming movements of the large lizard (Varanus), another is an imitation of the movements of a crab, another imitates those of a pigeon, and another those of a pelican. At a dance which I witnessed in the Roro village of Seria a party from Delena danced the "Cassowary" dance; and Father Egedi says it is certainly so called because its movements are in some way an imitation of those of the cassowary.

[95] Compare the Western Papuans, who, according to Dr. Seligmann, also have only two numerals, but who are apparently not able to count to anything like the extent which can be done by the Mafulu (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 4). According to Mr. Monckton the Kambisi (Chirima valley) people only count on their fingers and up to ten, not on their toes and up to twenty (_Annual Report_, June, 1906, p. 89). Father Egedi told me that the Mekeo people only count on their fingers and up to ten.

[96] I believe that in Mekeo they begin with the left hand and with the small finger, thus reversing the Mafulu order of counting; but I am not quite certain as to this.

[97] Though here and afterwards I use the word "man," it must be understood that the notes apply to deaths of women also.

[98] This food taboo is with the Mafulu only an optional alternative; but it may be compared with the corresponding food taboo placed upon all the relatives of the deceased by the Koita (see Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea,_ p. 164).

[99] I was told of this Mafulu practice as being adopted only on the death of the woman's child. But the custom is referred to by the Mekeo Government Agent (Mr. Giulianetti) in the _Annual Report_ for June, 1900, pp. 73 and 78; and, according to him, its adoption applies also to deaths of other relatives--husband, father, and mother being especially mentioned by him--and he suggests that there are rules as regards these amputations, and says he understood that a mother would cut off the first joint for her children, and the second for her husband, father, or mother. He also gives information as to the way in which the amputation is effected.

[100] The sticks are seen in the plates, having been placed on the grave before the photographs were taken.

[101] I am not aware of any ground for believing that the community invited is one with which intermarriage is specially common. Indeed, as stated above, I do not think that there are special matrimonial relationships between communities.

[102] _Melanesians of British New Guinea,_ p. 13.

[103] I was told that in the Mekeo mourning-removal ceremony each of the persons wearing the insignia of mourning has to go through the ceremony, which consists of the cutting of his necklace or something else with a shell.

[104] Compare Dr. Seligmann's references in _Melanesians of British New Guinea_ to the mourning removal ceremonies of the Koita (p. 165), the Roro (p. 277), and the Mekeo (p. 359).

[105] I recognise that, though the terms "grave," "bury," and "burial" are correctly applied to the mode of interment underground of an ordinary person, the term "grave" is clearly an incorrect one for the overground platform box and tree box in one or other of which a chiefs body is placed; and the use with reference to this mode of disposal of the dead of the terms "bury" and "burial" is, I think, at least unsuitable. But with this apology, and for lack of a short and convenient, but more accurate, substitute adapted to the three methods, I use these terms throughout with reference to all of them.

[106] This Mafulu practice of tree burial is referred to in the _Annual Report_ for June, 1900, p. 63.

[107] Platform burial in one form or another is not peculiar to the Mafulu district. It is perhaps common among many of the mountain people. Sir William Macgregor found it in the mountains of the Vanapa watershed (_Annual Report_, 1897-8, pp. 22 and 23), and Dr. Seligmann regards it, I think, as a custom among the general class of what he calls "Kama-weka" (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 32). Mr. J. P. Thomson records its occurrence even in the lower waters of the Kemp Welch river (_British New Guinea_, p. 53, and see also his further references to the matter on pp. 59 and 67). In view of a suggestion which I make in my concluding chapter as to the possible origin of the Mafulu people, it is also interesting to note that platform or tree burial is, or used to be, adopted, for important people only, by the Semang of the Malay Peninsula and the Andamanese. As regards the Semang, though they now employ a simple form of interment, their more honourable practice was to expose the dead in trees (Skeat and Blagden, _Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula_, Vol. II., p. 89); and, though the bodies of the Pangan (East Coast Semang) lay members were buried in the ground, those of their great magicians were deposited in trees (_Ibid._, Vol. II., p. 91); and apparently this was the case among the Semang as regards the bodies of chiefs (_Ibid._, Vol. I., p. 587). And concerning the Andamanese it is recorded that the skeleton of a man who, for reasons given, was believed to have been a chief was found lying on a platform of sticks placed across forks of a tree about 12 feet from the ground, a mode which was compared with the method of underground burial which had previously been met with (_Transactions of the Ethnological Society, New Series_, Vol. V. p. 42). Mr. Portman records (_History of our Relations with the Andamanese_, Vol. II., p. 547) similar tree burial of two chiefs and the wife of a chief, and refers to the practice of burying underground "or, what is more honourable," on a platform up in a tree (_Ibid_., Vol. I., p. 43). The practice is also mentioned by Mr. Man, who, after referring (_The Andaman Islanders_, p. 76) to underground interment and platform burial, of which "the latter is considered the more complimentary," states (pp. 76 and 77) that a small stage is constructed of sticks and boughs about 8 to 12 feet above the ground, _generally_ (the italics are mine) between the forked branches of some large tree, and to it the body is lashed.

[108] I have been unable to find an account of any spiritual or partly spiritual being associated with the beliefs of Papuans or Melanesians who can be regarded as being similar to _Tsidibe_. Perhaps the nearest approach to him will be found in _Qat_ of the Banks Islands, of whom much is told us by Dr. Codrington in _The Melanesians_, and who apparently is not regarded as having been of divine rank, but is rather a specially powerful, but perhaps semi-human, spiritual individual, who, though not having originally created mankind and the animal and vegetable world and the objects and forces of nature as a whole, has had, and it would seem still has, considerable creative and influencing powers over them all. But I could learn no detailed legends concerning _Tsidibe_; and the scanty information given to me concerning him differs from what we know of _Qat_.

[109] Dr. Stapf thinks it is probably a species of Podocarpus or Dacrydium.

[110] Dr. Seligmann refers (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 185) to a specimen of _Ficus rigo_, in which a taboo, having the power of making Koita folk sick, is believed to be immanent. I do not know whether or not the _gabi_ tree is _Ficus rigo_, but, if it be so, there is an interesting similarity in this respect between these people and the Mafulu.

[111] A knotted wisp of grass is, I think, a common form of taboo sign in parts of New Guinea; and Dr. Seligmann refers (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, pp. 136 to 138) to its use by the Koita for the protection of cocoanuts and other trees and firewood, and as part of the protective sign for new gardens. The use of the wisp by the Mafulu people, as above described, is not a taboo used for the protection of an object from human interference, being intended to protect the travellers in some way from the spirit or spirits haunting the spot. But there is, I think, an underlying similarity of superstitious ideas involved by the two purposes for which the wisps are used.

[112] _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 281.

[113] _The Melanesians_, p. 203.

[114] Seligmann, _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p.85.

[115] I imagine a somewhat similar superstitious origin may be assumed as regards the idea of general purification (I of course do not refer to mere physical surface washing) by bathing: and Father Egedi says (_Anthropos_, Vol. V., p. 755) that the Kuni people, after a cannibal feast, had to confine themselves until the end of the moon which commenced before the feast to certain food, and that they then all bathed in running water and returned purified and free to eat any food.

[116] Apparently flying foxes are good omens in Tubetube (Southern Massim). See Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 653.

[117] This is very different from the extensive food taboo restrictions which Father Egedi told me were placed upon the bachelors of Mekeo.

[118] Dr. Seligmann puts their average stature at 60.5 in. (_Lancet,_ Feb. 17th, 1906, p. 427), which is less than the Mafulu average of 61.1 in. given by me above.

[119] Dr. Seligmann puts their average cephalic index calculated from fifteen measurements at 78 (_Geographical Journal_, Vol. XXVII., p. 234), which is below the Mafulu average cephalic index of 80 given by me above.

[120] Father Egedi thinks that the Lapeka people have some Pokau blood in them. Their language is a mixture of Kuni and Mekeo.

[121] Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 16.

[122] _Geographical Journal_, Vol. XXVI I., p. 235.

[123] _Ibid._

[124] _Geographical Journal_, Vol. XXVII., p. 235.

[125] P. 236.

[126] _Ibid._

[127] _Geographical Journal_, Vol. XXVII., p. 235.

[128] _Nature_, 9 June, 1910, p. 434.

[129] The Rev. Father Egedi's Vocabulary of Oru Lopiko gives the pronouns thus:

Singular. Plural.

1st Person, _na_, _naro_. _dae_, _daro_.
2nd Person, _ni_, _niro_. _ali_, _alero_.
3rd Person, _pi_, _piro_. _valo_, _valoro_.

The Possessives are formed with _ma_: _nema_, _nima_, _pima_, _daema_, _lima_, _valoma_.

The Interrogatives are: _tsia_? who? _itara_? _vaina_? what thing? (S.H.R.)

[130] These numerals differ from the Oru Lopiko of Father Egidi. He gives: _konepu_, one; _kalotolo_, two; _konekhalavi_, three; _maimitara_, many; _onionipu_, few. (S.H.R.)

[131] Foot's joint.

[132] Cf. M. _kon(on)de_, knot in wood.

[133] Cf. Fire.

[134] Cf. M. _tobo_, gourd.

[135] Probably introduced. Mekeo _avaava_, Pokau _tavatava_, buy.

[136] Introduced. Motu _asi_.

[137] Cf. M. _kon(on)de_, knot in wood.

[138] Cf. Fire.

[139] Cf. Finger.

[140] Cf. bag.

[141] Sun its light.

[142] _Na,_ I.

[143] Arm's joint.

[144] Cf. M. _kon(on)de,_ knot in wood.

[145] Eyebrow's hair.

[146] Eye-skin.

[147] _Nu,_ thou.

[148] Cf. Branch.

[149] _Feneme_, eel.

[150] Cf. _tala(pe)_, sp. thread.

[151] Finger's mother.

[152] Cf. Earth.

[153] Foot's hollow. Cf. Pumpkin.

[154] Cf. Earth.

[155] _Nu_, thou.

[156] Hand's hollow.

[157] _ Ni_, you.

[158] Side's tongue.

[159] Introduced (Motu, _Kimai_).

[160] _omen_, his.

[161] Also handcuffs.

[162] _Nu_, thou.

[163] To give the breast.

[164] _aumen_, his?.

[165] _Cf._ Finger.

[166] Breast, its nose.

[167] Nose, its hole.

[168] Introduced (Kabadi, Motu, _bara_).

[169] Kabadi, &c., _nau_.

[170] Sagopalm's important part.

[171] _Na_, I.

[172] Sit and Stay.

[173] _Cf._ M. ememe, _pierce._

[174] _Cf._ Night, Darkness, Black.

[175] _Cf._ M. _tsibe_, a reed.

[176] _Cf._ M. _usi(le_), tusk.

[177] _Omen_, he, his.

[178] _Cf_. Mother.

[179] Hand's neck.

[180] _Yango(ne_) a plant of which the roots give a yellow stain

[181] _British New Guinea Vocabularies_. London: The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[182] _A Comparative Vocabulary of the Dialects of British New Guinea_. Compiled by Sidney H. Ray. London, 1895.

[183] _Annual Report on British New Guinea_. 1896-7, p. 13.

[184] _Annual Report on British New Guinea_. 1897-8, p. 35.

[185] _British New Guinea. Annual Report for the Year ending 30th June_, 1906. p. 93.

[186] _Anthropos II, Heft_ 6. pp. 1016-1021.

[187] In comparing I have omitted the non-essential syllable.

[188] _Anthropos_, II. _Heft_ 6, pp. 1009-1021.

[189] _Op. cit._, p. 1009.

[190] _Op. cit._, pp. 1016-1021.