NEW GUINEA.
THE HOME OF THE PAPUAN RACE -- DISTINGUISHING MARKS OF THE RACE
-- DERIVATION OF THE NAME -- GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE PAPUANS --
THE SIGN OF PEACE -- AN UNFORTUNATE MISUNDERSTANDING -- DRESS AND
ORNAMENTS OF THE TRIBES OF DOURGA STRAIT -- THEIR AGILITY AMONG THE
TREES -- THE OUTANATA TRIBES -- TATTOOING AND ORNAMENTS -- ELABORATE
ARCHITECTURE -- WEAPONS -- THE DUST SIGNALS AND THEIR MEANING --
THEIR UNSUSPICIOUS NATURE -- ABRAUW, THE CHIEF.
We now come to the very home and centre of the Papuan race.
New Guinea is a very large island, fourteen hundred miles in length,
and, as far as has been ascertained, containing some two hundred
thousand geographical square miles. 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. They are remarkable for two physical
peculiarities. The one is a roughness of the skin, and the other is the
growth of the hair. The reader may remember that some of the tribes of
Southern Africa have the hair of the head growing in regular tufts or
patches, each about the size of a pea.
It is a remarkable fact that, in the Papuan race, the hair grows in
similar patches, but, instead of being short like that of the South
African, it grows to a considerable length, sometimes measuring
eighteen inches from root to tip. The Papuans are very proud of this
natural ornament, and therefore will seldom cut it off; but as, if
left untrained, it would fall over the eyes, they have various modes
of dressing it, but in most cases manage to make it stand out at right
angles from the head. Sometimes they take the hair of each patch
separately and screw it up into a ringlet. Sometimes they tease out
all the hairs with a wooden comb of four or five prongs, and, as the
hair is very coarse and stiff, it is soon induced to assume a mop-like
shape, and to increase the apparent size of the head to an enormous
extent.
Indeed, the word Papua is derived from this peculiarity of the hair. In
the Malay language, the word which signifies “crisped” is _pua-pua_,
which is easily contracted into _pa-pua_. Even the hair of the face
grows in similar patches, and so does that on the breast of the man,
and in the latter case the tufts are much further apart than on the
head or face.
The color of the Papuans is a very dark chocolate, sometimes inclining
to black, but having nothing in common with the deep shining black of
the negro. Their features are large and tolerably well made, though the
nose is very broad at the wings, and the lips wide. The nose, however,
is not flat like that of the negro, but is prominent, rather arched,
and descends so low that when seen in front the tip nearly reaches the
upper lip. The natives seem to be perfectly aware of this peculiarity,
and perpetuate it in their carvings.
Although taken as a whole, they are a fine race, there are many
diversities among the different tribes, and they may be divided
into the large and small tribes. The former are powerfully built,
but more remarkable for strength than symmetry--broad-breasted and
deep-chested, but with legs not equal in strength to the upper parts of
the body.
Their character has been variously given, some travellers describing
them as gentle and hospitable, while others decry them as fierce and
treacherous. Suspicious of strangers they certainly are, and with
good reason, having suffered much from the ships that visited their
coasts. A misunderstanding may soon arise between savage and civilized
people, especially when neither understands the language of the other.
An example of such a misunderstanding is given by Mr. Earle in his
valuable work on the native races of the Indian Archipelago. Lieutenant
Modera, an officer in the Dutch navy, embarked with several other
gentlemen in the ship’s boat, for the purpose of landing on the shore
of Dourga Strait, a passage between the mainland and Frederick Henry
Island.
“When the boat had proceeded to within a musket-shot distance from
them, the natives, who were armed with bows, arrows, and lances,
commenced making singular gestures with their arms and legs. The
native interpreter called out to them in a language partly composed of
Ceramese, and partly of a dialect spoken by a Papuan tribe dwelling
a little further to the north; but his words were evidently quite
unintelligible to them, as they only answered with loud and wild yells.
We endeavored, for a long time without success, to induce them to lay
aside their weapons, but at length one of them was prevailed upon to do
so, and the others followed his example, on which we also laid down our
arms, keeping them, however, at hand.
“We now slowly approached each other, and the interpreter, dipping
his hand into the sea, sprinkled some of the water over the crown of
his head as a sign of peaceful intentions. This custom seems to be
general among all the Papuan tribes, and in most cases their peaceful
intentions may be depended upon after having entered into this silent
compact.
“This they seemed to understand, for two of them immediately did the
same, on which the interpreter jumped into the shallow water, and
approached them with some looking-glasses and strings of beads, which
were received with loud laughter and yells. They now began dancing
in the water, making the interpreter join, and the party was soon
increased by other natives from the woods, who were attracted by the
presents. Mr. Hagenholtz also jumped into the shallow water and joined
in the dance, and they soon became so friendly as to come close round
the boat; indeed some of them were even induced to get in.”
Meanwhile their confidence increased, and they began to barter with
their visitors, exchanging their ornaments, and even their weapons,
for beads, mirrors, and cloth. They were very inquisitive about the
strange objects which they saw in the boat, and, although they handled
everything freely, did not attempt to steal. One of them took up a
loaded pistol, but laid it down at once when the owner said it was
tapu, or forbidden. Unfortunately, a misunderstanding then took place,
which destroyed all the amicable feeling which had been established.
“While all this was going on, they kept drawing the boat--unperceived,
as they thought--toward the beach, which determined us to return, as
our stock of presents was exhausted, and there seemed no probability
of our inducing any of them to go on board with us. Shortly before
this, Mr. Boers had ornamented a Papuan with a string of beads, who, on
receiving it, joined two of his countrymen that were standing a little
distance off with the arms that had been laid aside, but which they had
been gradually getting together again--a proceeding we had observed,
but, trusting in the mutual confidence that had been established, we
did not much heed it.
“At the moment in which we were setting off the boat to return on
board, this man fixed an arrow in his bow, and took aim at Mr. Boers,
who was sitting in the fore part of the boat, on which the latter
turned aside to take up his gun, but before he could do so he received
the arrow in his left thigh, which knocked him over, shouting, ‘Fire!
fire! I am hit!’ as he fell. The order was scarcely given before every
one had hold of his arms (which, as before stated, were kept at hand),
and a general discharge put the natives to flight, swimming and diving
like ducks.
“Before they took to flight, however, they discharged several more
arrows at our people, one of which struck Mr. Hagenholtz in the
right knee, another hit a sailor in the leg, while a third pierced a
sailor’s hat and remained sticking in it; and lastly, a Javanese had
the handkerchief shot off his head, but without receiving any personal
injury.”
Three of the natives were severely wounded, if not killed, in this
unfortunate affair, which evidently arose, as Mr. Earle points out,
from misunderstanding, and not from deliberate treachery. Seeing the
boats being pulled toward the ships while four of their companions were
on board, they probably thought that they were being carried off as
captives, as has so often been done along their coast by the slavers.
They could not be expected to understand the difference between one
white man and another, and evidently mistook the Dutch sailors for
slavers, who had come for the purpose of inveigling them into the
ships, where they could not be rescued.
The tribes of this part of the coast are not agreeable specimens of the
Papuan race. They are barely of the middle size, and lightly built.
Their skin is decidedly black, and they ornament their bodies with red
ochre, paying especial attention to their faces, which are made as
scarlet as ochre can make them. The hair is deep black, and is worn in
various ways. Most of the men plait it in a number of tresses, which
fall nearly on the shoulders, while others confine it all into two
tails, and several were seen with a curious headdress of rushes, the
ends of which were firmly plaited among the hair. They are a dirty set
of people, and are subject to diseases of the skin, which give them a
very repulsive appearance.
Dress is not used by the men, who, however, wear plenty of ornaments.
They mostly have a belt made of plaited leaves or rushes, about five
inches wide, and so long that, when tied together behind, the ends
hang down for a foot or so. Some of them adorn this belt with a large
white shell, placed exactly in the middle. Earrings of plaited rattan,
necklaces, and bracelets, were worn by nearly all. Some of them had a
very ingenious armlet, several inches in width. It was made of plaited
rattan, and fitted so tightly to the limb that, when a native wished
to take it off for sale, he was obliged to smear his arm with mud, and
have the ornament drawn off by another person.
Their principal weapons are bows, arrows, and spears, the latter being
sometimes tipped with the long and sharp claw of the tree-kangaroo.
The agility of these Papuans is really astonishing. Along the water’s
edge there run wide belts of mangroves, which extend for many miles in
length with scarcely a break in them. The ground is a thick, deep, and
soft mud, from which the mangrove-roots spring in such numbers that no
one could pass through them even at low water without the constant use
of an axe, while at high water all passage is utterly impossible.
As the natives, who are essentially maritime in their mode of life,
have to cross this belt several times daily in passing from their
canoes to their houses, and vice versa, they prefer doing so by means
of the upper branches, among which they run and leap, by constant
practice from childhood, as easily as monkeys. (See p. 909.) There is
really nothing extraordinary in this mode of progress, which can be
learned by Europeans in a short time, although they never can hope to
attain the graceful ease with which the naked savages pass among the
boughs. In some places the mangroves grow so closely together that to
traverse them is a matter of perfect ease, and Mr. Earle remarks that
he once saw a file of marines, with shouldered arms, making their way
thus over a mangrove swamp.
The familiarity of these people with the trees causes them to look upon
a tree as a natural fortress, and as soon as explorers succeeded in
reaching the villages, the natives invariably made off, and climbed
into the trees that surrounded the villages.
Wild and savage as they are, the Papuans of Dourga Strait display some
acquaintance with the luxuries of civilized life and are inordinately
fond of tobacco, the one luxury that is common to the highest and
lowest races of mankind.
Some travellers have stated that these Papuans are cannibals, and it is
certain that their gestures often favor such an opinion.
The Papuans of Dourga Strait are admirable canoe men, and paddle with
singular skill and power. They always stand while paddling, a plan
whereby they obtain a great increase of power, though perhaps at the
expense of muscular exertion. They give as their chief reason for
preferring the erect position, that it enables them to detect turtle
better than if they were sitting, and to watch them as they dive under
water after being wounded.
* * * * *
Skirting the coast of New Guinea and proceeding northward from Dourga
Strait, we come to the OUTANATA River, at the embouchure of which is
a tribe that differs much from those natives which have already been
described. They are a finer and taller set of men than those of Dourga
Strait, and seem to have preserved many of their customs intact since
the time when Captain Cook visited them. Their skin is a very dark
brown, and is described as having a bluish tinge, and they are said
to rub themselves with some aromatic substance which causes them to
diffuse an agreeable odor.
It is probable that the bluish gloss may be due to the same aromatic
substance with which the body is perfumed. Mr. Earle thinks that the
odoriferous material in question is the bark of the tree called the
“rosamala.”
The blue tinge is never seen among Papuan slaves, and this circumstance
adds force to Mr. Earle’s conjecture.
The features are rather large, especially the mouth, and the lips
are thick. The custom of filing the teeth to a sharp point prevails
among this tribe, but is not universal. The eyes are small, and the
septum of the nose is always pierced so as to carry a piece of white
bone, a boar’s tusk, or some similar ornament. The hair is thick, and,
instead of being trained into long tails like that of the Dourga Strait
natives, it is plaited from the forehead to the crown.
The men wear scarcely any real dress, many of them being entirely
naked, and none of them wearing more than a small piece of bark or
a strip of coarse cloth made either of cocoa-nut fibre or of split
bamboo. They are, however, exceedingly fond of ornament, and have all
the savage love of tattooing, or rather scarifying, the body, which is
done in a way that reminds the observer of the same process among the
Australians. The scarifications project above the skin to the thickness
of a finger, and the natives say that this effect is produced by first
cutting deeply into the flesh, and then applying heat to the wounds.
Anklets, bracelets, and other articles of savage finery are common, and
a man who does not wear an inch of clothing will pride himself on his
boar’s teeth necklace, his bracelets of woven rattan, and his peaked
rush cap.
The women always wear some amount of clothing, however small, the very
fact of possessing apparel of any kind being conventionally accepted as
constituting raiment. Their solitary garment consists of a small apron,
about six inches square, made from the cocoa-nut fibre.
It is rather remarkable that these people have the same habit of
placing their new-born children in hot sand, as has already been
described when treating of the now extinct Tasmanians. When the mother
goes about her work, she carries the child by means of a sort of sling
made of leaves or the bark of a tree.
The architecture of the Outanatas is far superior to that of their
brethren of Dourga Strait. One of these houses, described by Lieutenant
Modera, was at least a hundred feet in length, though it was only five
feet high and six wide, so that a man could not stand upright in it.
There were nineteen doors to this curious building, which was at first
mistaken for a row of separate huts. The floor is covered with white
sand, and the inhabitants generally seat themselves on mats. Each of
these doors seemed to be appropriated to a single family, and near the
doors were placed the different fireplaces. Over the roof a fishing net
had been spread to dry in the sun, while a number of weapons were hung
under the roof.
This house was built in a few days by the women and girls, and was
placed near a much larger building, which had been raised on piles.
The weapons of the Outanatas are spears, clubs, and the usual bow and
arrows, which form the staple of Polynesian arms.
The bows are about five feet in length, and are furnished with a string
sometimes made of bamboo and sometimes of rattan. The arrows are about
four feet in length, and made of cane or reed, to the end of which
is attached a piece of hard wood, generally that of the betel-tree.
The tips are mostly simple, the wood being scraped to a sharp point
and hardened in the fire, but the more ambitious weapons are armed
with barbs, and furnished with a point made of bone. The teeth of
the sawfish are often employed for this purpose, and a few of the
arrows are tipped with the kangaroo claw, as already mentioned in the
description of the Dourga Strait spear.
Beside these weapons, the natives carry a sort of axe made of stone
lashed to a wooden handle, but this ought rather to be considered as
a tool than a weapon, although it can be used in the latter capacity.
With this simple instrument the Outanatas cut down the trees, shape
them into canoes, and perform the various pieces of carpentering that
are required in architecture.
The most remarkable part of an Outanata’s equipment is an instrument
which greatly perplexed the earlier voyagers, and led them to believe
that these natives were acquainted with fire-arms. Captain Cook, who
visited New Guinea in 1770, mentions that as soon as he reached the
shore and had left his boat, three natives, or “Indians,” as he calls
them, rushed out of the wood, and that one of them threw out of his
hand something which “flew on one side of him and burnt exactly like
powder, but made no report.” The two others hurled their spears at the
travellers, who were in self-defence obliged to use their fire-arms.
Not wishing to come to an engagement, they retired to the boat, and
reached it just in time, the natives appearing in considerable force.
“As soon as we were aboard, we rowed abreast of them, and their number
then appeared to be between sixty and a hundred. We took a view of
them at our leisure. They made much the same appearance as the New
Hollanders, being nearly of the same stature, and having their hair
short-cropped. Like them they also were all stark naked, but we thought
the color of their skin was not quite so dark; this, however, might be
merely the effect of their being not quite so dirty.
“All this time they were shouting defiance, and letting off their fires
by four or five at a time. What those fires were, or for what purpose
intended, we could not imagine. Those who discharged them had in their
hands a short piece of stick--possibly a hollow cane--which they swung
sideways from them, and we immediately saw fire and smoke, exactly
resembling those of a musket, and of no longer duration. This wonderful
phenomenon was observed from the ship, and the deception was so great
that the people on board thought they had firearms; and in the boat, if
we had not been so near that we must have heard the report, we should
have thought they had been firing volleys.”
The reader will doubtless remark here that the travellers were so
accustomed to associate fire with smoke that they believed themselves
to have seen flashes of fire as well as wreaths of smoke issue from
the strange weapon. Many years afterward, Lieutenant Modera contrived
to see and handle some of these implements, and found that they were
simply hollow bamboos, filled with a mixture of sand and wood-ashes,
which could be flung like smoke-wreaths from the tubes. The Outanatas,
their weapons, canoes and the remarkable instrument just described,
are illustrated on the following page.
Some persons have thought that the natives used these tubes in
imitation of firearms, but the interpreters gave it as their opinion
that they were employed as signals, the direction of the dust cloud
being indicative of the intention of the thrower. Others say that
the tubes are really weapons, made for the purpose of blinding their
adversaries by flinging sand in their eyes. I cannot agree with this
last suggestion, because the other weapons of the Outanatas show that
the natives do not fight hand to hand like the New Zealanders. I think
that the interpreters were right in their statement that the tubes are
used for signalling, and this supposition is strengthened by the fact
that the natives of Australia do use smoke for the same purpose, as has
already been described.
The canoes of the Outanatas are often of considerable size, measuring
fifty or sixty feet, and, although narrow in proportion to their
length from stem to stern, containing a great number of men. They are
handsomely carved and adorned with paint, and both ends are flat and
broad. The rowers stand up when they use their paddles, which are
necessarily of considerable length, having long handles and oval blades
slightly hollowed. The narrowness of these canoes strengthens the
opinion of several travellers, that the Outanatas are really an inland
tribe, descending the river in flotillas, and returning to their inland
home when the object of their expedition is accomplished.
They seem to be less suspicious than their countrymen of Dourga Strait,
and have no hesitation in meeting Europeans and exchanging their own
manufactures for cloth, knives, and glass bottles, the last mentioned
objects being always favorite articles of barter with Polynesian
savages, who employ them when entire for holding liquids, and, if they
should unfortunately be broken, use the fragments for knives, lancets,
points of weapons, and similar purposes. Lieutenant Modera describes
the appearance of one of their flotillas as representing a perfect
fair, the boats being laid closely together, and their decks crowded
with natives laden with articles for barter.
Unlike the Dourga Strait natives, those of the Outanata River had
no objection to come on board the European ships, and visited the
vessels in great numbers. Even their principal chief came on board
frequently. On the first occasion he disguised his rank, and merely
came as an ordinary native, but he afterward avowed himself, and came
freely on board in his own character. For convenience’ sake he called
himself Abrauw, _i. e._ Abraham, a name by which he was well known for
a considerable distance. He offered no objection to going below and
entering the Captain’s cabin, though his subjects were rather uneasy at
his absence, and shouted his name so perseveringly that he was obliged
every now and then to put his head out of the cabin window. He had all
the regal power of concealing astonishment, and witnessed with utter
imperturbability the discharge of firearms, the ticking of watches,
and examples of similar marvels. He did, however, display a little
interest in the musketry practice, which was directed at a succession
of bottles, slung from the yard-arm, but whether he was struck with the
accuracy of aim or with the needless destruction of valuable bottles is
doubtful.
He seemed to be worthy of his position as chief, and was desirous of
establishing an European settlement near the mouth of the Outanata.
Unfortunately, the river, although a noble stream, has a sandbar across
the mouth which effectually prevents vessels of even light draught from
passing except at high water. The people in general were wonderfully
honest, not displaying the thievish propensities which cause the visits
of many savage tribes to be so troublesome. They even brought on board
articles which had been accidentally left on shore. They probably
owe much of their superiority to their connection with the Malay
Mohammedans, many of whom visit New Guinea as traders.
[Illustration: (1.) A SCENE IN THE NICOBAR ISLANDS. (See page 897.)]
[Illustration: (2.) THE OUTANATAS AND THEIR WEAPONS. (See page 902.)]