with the chiefs of the South Sea Islands with which
I am acquainted, are powerless in time of peace. They
cannot impose a tax of any kind, and have no control
over the people beyond their own family. I was par-
ticularly impressed with this fact when we established
a mission station at the village of one of these head-
men, who had been represented to us as the biggest
chief in New Guinea, and who has been exhibited as



112 AMONG THE CANNIBALS.

such in Queensland to the wondering community ot
Cooktown. The fact is, that he, Hke the rest, has no
authority except as a war leader. Physically he is a
big man, certainly one of the most powerful-looking
men I have seen in New Guinea, and he greatly boasts
of his strength and exploits, and is feared as the bully
of a village is feared. His name is Koapena. When
we arrived at his village, according to arrangement,
with two South Sea Island teachers and their boxes,
he met us on the beach with a crowd of natives. To
see the man and hear him talk one would suppose that
he was a powerful and despotic chief; indeed, this was
our first impression ; but when it came to carrying
the teachers' luggage up to his house, his true position
became ludicrously evident. We begged him to ask
some of his men to carry the goods, and we would
pay them. He spoke to them, he entreated, he
stormed ; but they only laughed at him; and told him
to carry them himself Finally, in a rage, he and his
own sons shouldered the boxes and walked off with
them, amidst the laughter of the crowd. When in his
house, we were crowded almost to suffocation, and
begged him to send some of the people out, that we
might get a little fresh air. Here again he seemed
utterly powerless even to send the boys out of his
own house ; and, to complete his humiliation in our
estimation, when we made him a present those around
snatched the things out of his hand and bore them
away in triumph, notwithstanding his protestations,
it was quite evident that this great man, of whom we
had heard so much, was no chief at all, but simply a
noted warrior, who, by physical strength and daring,
had forced himself to the front.



THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 113

These headmen live and dress just Hke their neigh-
bours. They have to make their own plantations and
build their own houses, also fish and hunt for them-
selves. It is only when there is a council of war or an
actual engagement that they come to the front and
speak with authority. If cannibals, they superintend
the cutting up and dividing of the victims. Amongst
most of the tribes the headmanship is hereditary ;
sometimes however the tribes become dissatisfied
with his leadership, and he is deposed and another
appointed in his place, though this seldom happens.
His badge and source of authority is really his club,
which is generally a very superior one, made of stone.

The absence of powerful chiefs, as amongst the South
Sea Islands, has been seriously felt by us in establishing
mission stations amongst the people. The interest and
protection of a powerful chief (which is not difficult
to secure by presents and kindness) is not only a source
of security, but of advancement for the mission ; where-
as there is generally but little advantage in having
a New Guinea chief for your friend, his influence being
so small that he can neither protect your life nor pro-
perty. You may be attacked by any man in the
village without his asking the sanction or fearing the
frown of the headman or anybody else, except the
party attacked and his friends. Still these headmen
may be descendants of chiefs who were as powerful
and despotic as those now reigning in the South Sea;
for not only do the sons succeed to the office, but they
generally succeed also to the name. Query therefore:
Is democracy a sign of advancement or retrogression?

In their government the natives of New Guinea, so
far as we know them, are patriarchal and democratic.



114 AMONG THE CANNIBALS.

All important matters are decided in a general council
of the village, at which the headmen and sacred men,
or priests, have most to say, and whose advice is
generally followed. I mean by headmen the heads of
families — a family being a combined group of sons,
daughters, uncles, cousins, nieces, etc. The sacred men
are the doctors and sorcerers of the village.

All land, both cultivated and uncultivated, is owned
by the heads of families. Having no written language
they, of course, had no written laws. The boundaries
of their lands are however well defined, and their
land laws strictly observed. Any disputes about land
boundaries (which rarely occur) are settled, like all
other grievances, by public opinion in a general council
of the people. Crimes, such as stealing, adultery, etc.,
are dealt with very summarily, the offender being
punished by the person injured. Club law prevails,
sustained by public opinion. Death is the usual pun-
ishment for murder and often for adultery. The
injured party being at liberty to seek revenge on the
brother, son, or any member of the family to which
the guilty party belonged, sometimes the culprit and
his family seek refuge in another village, which proves
a city of refuge. It is seldom any one dares to pursue
them and risk hostilities with the village that protects
them. The revenge then takes the form of burning
down their houses and plundering their plantations.

Wars generally originate about women or in some
private quarrel between two individuals, which the
village takes up. Their weapons are clubs, spears,
bows and arrows, stones, and wooden swords, which
are generally made of ebony and artistically carved.
Some of their short spears are also well carved.



THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 115

Their bows are mostly made from bamboos and very
powerful, their arrows being made from reeds and
pointed with bone, which is often a human bone
saturated with poison. In war they never stand up
in orderly ranks and shoot at each other ; according
to their notions that would be the height of folly.
Their favourite tactics are rather of the surprise and
skirmishing order. I remember one of the chiefs
questioning me about our mode of warfare, and his
look of amazement when I described the rows of men
placed opposite each other and firing at one another
with guns. He eagerly inquired whether the men
were within range, and when I replied in the affirmative
he exclaimed : " Then you are great fools. We
thought you were wise men, but it seems you are
fools." Then he asked where the chief stood. " Oh,"
I said, " he remains at home and sends his men to
fight." At which there was a burst of laughter, the
chief remarking proudly that New Guinea chiefs not
only accompanied the fighting men, but kept in fro7it.
And it occurred to me that if we were to adopt a
similar custom our wars would probably be less
sanguinary. The heroes are those who obtain the
greatest number of human heads. They are often,
like Achilles, swift of foot, who dash towards the
enemy and hurl a spear with great precision. Their
great ambition is to signalise themselves by the num-
ber of heads hanging in their houses. No hero in the
Grecian games rejoices more over his chaplet than
does the young Papuan glory in the distinction of
having cut off a man's head. I remember the pride
with which the young chief of Saibai pointed out to
me five skulls hanging in front of his house. His



ii6 AMONG THE CANNIBALS.

bravery was the subject of village song. He is now
a devoted and leading member of the church there.

Their wars are not very sanguinary. They have
not yet learnt the art of killing by hundreds and
thousands. A dozen slain at a battle is a large num-
ber. It is usually two or three on each side, and a
few wounded, both sides claiming the victory. The
women sometimes accompany the warriors, and whilst
the men are fighting or skirmishing the women are
plundering the plantations of the enemy ; and when
they return twit their husbands with their want of
success, pointing to their baskets full of yams, and
asking them where the skulls are which they have
brought.

Of all the tribes with which I am acquainted in
New Guinea, there are none equal, either in bravery
or cruelty, to the Tugarians. I have in my possession
a battle-axe from this tribe, the only iron weapon I
have seen amongst the savages of New Guinea along
ths 600 miles of coast-line with which I am ac-
quainted. It is evidently made from a piece of iron
fiom some wreck, and is more like a small pickaxe
than an ordinary axe. So far as we know, the natives
of New Guinea have no idea of working the minerals
with which their country abounds, so that the absence
of gold ornaments by no means indicates the absence
of gold, any more than it did in Australia. They
value iron of any kind very highly, especially thick
hoop-iron, which they sharpen and use as axes.
Long knives are greatly prized, being used for clear-
ing the scrub for their plantations and as swords in
war.

They possess very few and very inferior tools,



THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 117

which are made from stones, flint, and bones ; yet
their carving is surprisingly well done, showing con-
siderable artistic skill, both in the design and in the
execution. They carve images of birds, fish, and
men, and ornament their canoes, paddles, houses,
drums, clubs, etc., with tolerably well-executed draw-
ings and carvings. A large nail is to them quite a
treasure. They sharpen it and use it as a small chisel.
I have seen a cannibal native execute some very good
work on his canoe with a spike nail that I gave him.

There is a good deal of ingenuity displayed by the
natives in the construction and ornamentation of their
canoes. Any one can tie a bundle of bamboos to-
gether and form a raft, as the natives in the interior
do for crossing rivers. Nor does it require much skill
to fell a tree, cut off the branches, and hollow out the
log, as many of the inland tribes do who live on the
banks of creeks and arms of the large rivers. But to
construct a war canoe, with its single or double out-
rigger, and its artistically carved stem and sternposts,
its carved images, and handsome steering paddle, and
well-executed drawings of fish, etc., on its sides, is the
work of a distinct and not very numerous class of
professional carpenters and painters. The lakatoi or
large trading canoe used by the natives in the barren
district of Port Moresby for obtaining food from the
fertile Papuan Gulf, is a kind of raft, made by lashing
six or eight canoes together, upon which a platform is
raised, made from pieces of old canoes, the sides being
made in the same way as their houses, of leaves sewn
together, and the whole propelled by an immense
mat sail or sails. Of course, they can only go with a
fair wind, and so leave for the gulf at the south-east



Ii8 AMONG THE CANNIBALS.

monsoon, and return with the first of the north-west.
The best canoes I have seen in New Guinea are
those at the east end, which are really well-built boats,
consisting of two or three planks sewn to the sides of
a log neatly hollowed out. Timbers and thwarts are
fitted, and the whole ornamented with carved work,
drawings, shells, streamers, etc. They have an out-
rigger, and are propelled by a large mat sail, which
they handle very dexterously in beating to windward.
These canoes will outsail an ordinary whaleboat, and
go to windward of it.

Their sails, like their canoes, differ widely, from a
plaited cocoanut leaf to a well-made mat sail like an
immense kite, the top being concave instead of convex.
The canoe paddles of the savages at the eastern end
of the south-east peninsula are the best I have seen.
They are generally made of cedar, smaller than an
ordinary paddle, prettily shaped and regularly cut, the
top of the handle being neatly carved.

Native houses, like native canoes, differ very much
amongst different tribes. Some are like gigantic bee-
hives ; others are like a row of cottages without any
partitions. As previously mentioned, I measured one
of" this kind at an inland village thirty miles up the
Fly River, and found it to be 512 feet in length. Some
are built on posts all sizes and all shapes, often like
a boat turned bottom upwards. I noticed amongst
the inland tribes in the Papuan Gulf, near the Fly
River, that the houses were built of bark instead
of grass or leaves, as is generally the case ; still, like
those of the inland tribes on the peninsula, they are
inferior to the houses on the coast. The hill tribes
often build their houses for safety in the forks of



THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 119

trees. They first make a platform, which not only
bears the house, but also a quantity of stones, which
are always kept handy to defend it from the enemy.
They live on the ridges of the hills, which are some-
times very narrow. I remember spending a night at
one of these places. We had more than one reason
for preferring camping out to sleeping in one of their
houses. My hammock was slung between two posts,
but it seemed so dangerous as I lay and looked
down the steep sides of the mountain, which was
over 1,000 feet high, that I got out and lay on the
ground.

The most peculiar and interesting are the villages
built on posts in the lagoons, and on some parts of
the coasts, varying in distance up to a mile from the
beach, reminding one of the old lake dwellings.
These houses are much like large, ricketty pigeon
cots, along the floors and platforms of which you
tread your way with fear and trembling, expecting
every moment to drop through into the sea. The
interior of many of the native houses is both clean
and comfortable. The better class consist of a plat-
form or portico, then the large living room, and above
a s4eeping apartment. They are well thatched, the
sides made of leaves neatly sewn together, and stand
upon strong posts six or eight feet high.

The natives are mostly vegetarians. Occasionally
they get some fish, kangaroos, or human flesh ; but
this is rare, except at a few fishing villages on the
coast. Their food consists of yams, taro, bananas,
cocoanuts, sugar-cane, and sago, the last-named
article being cultivated chiefly in the Papuan Gulf,
where there is plenty of fresh water. It is the



I20 AMONG THE CANNIBALS.

chief article of export from the gulf, being exchanged
with the tribes about Port Moresby for pottery. We
also purchase a good deal from the natives of the Fly
River for food for our Papuan Institute. This very
useful palm has a creeping stem-root like a nipa
palm. When it is fifteen years old it sends up an
immense terminal spike of flowers, after which it dies.
It is not so tall as a cocoanut tree, but is thicker and
larger. The mid-ribs of its immense leaves are twelve
or fifteen feet long, and sometimes the lower part is as
thick as a man's leg. They are very light, consisting
of a firm pith covered with a hard rind. The pith in
the upper part is of snowy whiteness and of the con-
sistency of a hardish pear, with woody fibres running
through it a quarter of an inch from each other. The
pith is pounded by a club while still in the trunk. It
is then washed in a kind of trough formed of the
large sheathing bases of the leaves. A net-like
strainer is made from the fibrous covering from the
leaf-stalks of the cocoanuts. The trough being deep
at the centre and shallow at the ends, the starch
which is dissolved sinks down to the bottom of the
trough, while the water runs away from the upper
part. It is then made into bundles of 60 lbs. or 80 lbs.
each, encased in the sheathing bases of the leaves,
and kept for use or barter. It has a reddish tinge^
and being made up soon spoils. Rewashed and
thoroughly dried it makes good sago, and keeps a
long time.

The natives have also abundance of wild fruits and
edible roots, amongst which may be mentioned the
bread fruit, mango, wild date, rose apple, and native
plum. Nature bountifully supplies them with the




MURRAY ISLAND BY MOONLIGHT.



THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 121

necessaries of life. For plates they use wooden
platters, plaited cocoanut leaves, and the beautiful
banana leaf Knives and forks are easily made from
bamboos, and spoons from pearl and cocoanut shells.
Some cook in earthenware pots, others on hot stones.
Their plantations are carefully cultivated and well
fenced in. I have seen miles of them looking like
well-kept gardens. The soil is turned over with
pointed sticks by the men, the women following,
breaking it up and throwing out the weeds. The
yams, bananas, etc., are planted in straight rows, for
which purpose they use a line, and the bunches of
bananas are carefully preserved from the birds by
being encased in dried banana leaves. In the vicinity
of the Fly River they drain the land by means of deep
trenches, which reveal to the stranger the great depth
of the rich alluvial soil. These trenches are well
made and carefully kept, and bridged over wherever
there is a road. In visiting a village off one of the
arms of the Fly River, about thirty miles from the
coast, I was surprised to find such luxuriant vege-
tation, well-cultivated plantations, numerous deeply
dug trenches, and apparently abundance of food
everywhere. Some of these inland tribes trade with
those on the coast, bartering vegetables, paradise
birds' feathers, etc., in exchange for fish and salt.
The women generally do the bartering, and are very
noisy and acute in the transaction.

In Hood Lagoon there is a village of agriculturists
close to one of fishermen, where there is a regular
market for the almost daily exchange of their fish
and vegetables. It is a regular Billingsgate. To see
the women exhibiting their fish to the best advantage



122 AMONG THE CANNIBALS,

is really amusing. The chief articles of barter amongst
the natives however are pottery, sago, pearl shells,
armlets, and canoes. The last-named are generally
obtained in exchange for armlets and pearl shell ; one
large size armlet being the price of a fully equipped
canoe, or equivalent to a man ; i.e. if a person is killed
an armlet will generally atone for the offence and
prevent a war. The armlets are made from the heads
of conical shells found in Torres Straits and off the
east end of New Guinea. Fish are mostly caught by
nets, though often by line and hook, and sometimes by
spear. I have seen them catching sardines in a very
ingenious way. These small fish move about the reef
in immense shoals. They keep close together, and
move on very slowly in a compact body. The natives
have a hand-basket, which is strongly, neatly, and
lightly made in the shape of an extinguisher. The
fisherman stands with this in his hand opposite the
shoals which are near the beach. On each side of
him stands a man with a long bamboo, on the end of
which is fixed a light ball. When all are ready these
two men rapidly push their poles into the shoal at an
angle, allowing them to meet at the ends, which of
course causes the sardines to retreat from the pole-
heads, and as they dart towards the beach, the man
with the basket at the same instant plunges in and
scoops them out. This is repeated along the beach,
and they follow the sardines until they have as many
as they want. Dugong are speared from a platform
erected on the reef.

Turtle are very cleverly caught at sea. On our
way to and from the Fly River we often catch them.
When seen lying listlessly on the surface, the boat is



THEFR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 123

steered towards it. A native fastens a small rope to
his arm, others stand by ready to haul in, and there
is perfect silence whilst the boat glides up to the mon-
ster. It generally gets close up to the turtle before the
latter is aware. The moment it dives the man w^ith
the rope fastened to his arm plunges in, and as he can
dive quicker than the turtle, he soon catches it and
seizes the shell firmly with both arms, giving the signal
to pull. Now the excitement on deck becomes intense
as the natives haul in the rope. Presently there is a
most ludicrous scene. Man and turtle both appear,
the one on top of the other, holding on for dear life,
both turning over and over like a patent log as they
are dragged along by the boat. Another native jumps
in and fastens a rope to the arm of the turtle, by
which those on board haul it on deck. Green turtle
weigh from 300 lbs. to 600 lbs. each. The students in
our Papuan seminary caught sixteen the year before
I left for the Christmas feast. The eggs are considered
a great delicacy by the natives. Sandbanks and unin-
habited islands are the most likely places to find them.
Whenever we anchor for the night at such places,
the natives go ashore with pointed sticks or small
iron bars, with which they probe the sand in likely
places, examining the points carefully to see if they
are wet. As soon as they see any indication of having
probed an ^gg they quickly remove the sand, and
often find as many as 1 50 or 200 eggs in a nest. It
is at these places that the turtle are most easily and
plentifully caught. The natives remain on shore during
the night, and when the turtle come up on the beach
beyond highwater mark to lay their eggs, the natives
go quietly and turn them over on their backs, which



124 AMONG THE CANNIBALS.

renders them helpless. They sometimes get half a
dozen in a night in this way.

Their hunting is confined to the kangaroo, wild pig,
and cassowary, these being the only animals there are
to hunt in New Guinea. Kangaroos are caught with
strong nets, into which they are driven by setting fire
to the long grass in front of the nets, the natives
guarding the sides to prevent their escape, and so
driving them into the semicircle formed by the net.
The ends are then drawn together and the circle
gradually lessened, surrounded by the natives, who,
when the circle becomes small enough, commence a
general slaughter. They catch as many as forty at
once in this way. The cassowaries are more difficult
to obtain. To secure them the natives use spears and
bows and arrows. The wild boar hunt is the most
dangerous and exciting, in which spears are almost
exclusively used. The animal often turns upon its
pursuers, and is not unfrequently victorious in the
encounter. I know of two instances where the struggle
proved fatal to both hunter and hunted. Not long ago
a war party were proceeding to a bush village near the
Fly River, on a skull-hunting expedition. Their road
lay through a forest of tall trees where wild pigs
abound. They had not gone far when one crossed
their path. Spears and arrows instantly flew after it,
but missed. Some of the men pursued, but being
intent on the business of war, soon returned. One
man however continued the chase, whom they found
on their return lying at the root of a tree gored to
death, the boar also lying dead not far off. The con-
dition of both showed that there must have been a
fearful struggle for life.



THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 125

The smoking practised by the natives is worthy
of remark. When it was introduced we cannot say.
In 1 87 1 we found the natives at Saibai and Katau
smoking from bamboo pipes, and on our voyages
up the Baxter and Fly rivers found tobacco plan-
tations far in the interior. On the south-east penin-
sula however it is a recently acquired habit. They
did not know the use of tobacco when we first met •
them. They have learnt to smoke from foreigners.
It is also very probable that the natives of the
Fly River district acquired the habit from the Torres
Straits natives, who most likely were taught by the
early beclie de mer fishers. Wherever it came from,
the habit is now universal amongst all the tribes
with which we are acquainted ; men, women, and
children, old and young, all smoke, and tobacco is
the most eagerly sought article of trade. They use
bamboo pipes, from two to four feet in length, orna-
mented with fanciful designs, burnt in. All the
sections of the bamboo are opened except the end
one, near which a small hole is made, giving it the
appearance of a flute. On the peninsula, in the
vicinity of Port Moresby, the tobacco is rolled in a
leaf, and the smoke inhaled from the end of the
bamboo. In the Gulf they place the tobacco in a
small bamboo, about four inches long and three-
quarters of an inch in diameter, in appearance like a
large cigar. This they insert in a small hole of the
pipe, and place the lighted end in their mouth, as boys
place a lighted candle. They blow the large bamboo
full of smoke, then take out the small bamboo and
inhale the smoke from the small hole, taking one pull
and handing it on. When empty, it is handed back