The Mafulu Part 40

[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 st.i.tch 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 ma.n.u.script 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 (Vara.n.u.s), 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 "Ca.s.sowary" dance; and Father Egedi says it is certainly so called because its movements are in some way an imitation of those of the ca.s.sowary.

[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 relations.h.i.+ps 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 sh.e.l.l.

[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, subst.i.tute 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 cla.s.s 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 a.s.sociated 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 gra.s.s 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 superst.i.tious 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 superst.i.tious origin may be a.s.sumed as regards the idea of general purification (I of course do not refer to mere physical surface was.h.i.+ng) 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 Ma.s.sim). 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.