Bark Cloth Making, Netting and Art.
Bark Cloth Making and Netting.
I put the two processes of bark cloth making and netting together,
as being the only forms in which material is made in pieces of
substantial size.
Bark cloth is used for making perineal bands, men's caps,
illness-recovery capes, bark cloth head strings, mourning strings and
dancing aprons and ribbons. Netting is used for fishing and hunting
nets, sleeping hammocks, the various forms of carrying bags and the
mourning vests worn by the widows of chiefs.
Bark Cloth Making.
Bark cloth is made by both men and women out of the bark of three
different kinds of tree; but I do not know what these are. They strip
the bark from the tree, and from the bark they strip off the outer
layer, leaving the inner fibrous layer, which is about 1/8th of an
inch in thickness. They have no method of fastening two pieces of
bark or cloth together, so every garment has to be a single piece,
and the size of the piece to be made depends upon the purpose for
which it is wanted. The cloth is made in the usual way by soaking the
prepared bark in water for about twenty-four hours, and then hammering
it with a heavy mallet upon the rounded surface of a cut-down tree
trunk (Plate 79).
The mallet used (Plate 51, Fig. 3), however, differs from the wooden
mallet of Mekeo and the coast. It is a heavy black roller-shaped
piece of stone, tapering a little at one or both ends, and being
broader at the beating end than at the holding end. It varies in
length from 10 to 18 inches, and has a maximum width of about 2 or
2 1/2 inches. The beating surface is not flattened, as is the case
with the Mekeo beaters, but it is rather deeply scored with a series
of longitudinal and transverse lines, crossing each other at right
angles, or nearly so. This scoring generally covers a surface space
of about 3 inches by 1 or 2 inches, and is done with pointed pieces
of similar stone, or with the tusks of wild pigs.
As the hammering proceeds the bark becomes thinner and larger in
surface, and when this process is finished, the cloth is hung up
to dry.
The colouring of the cloth, if and when this is added, is done by men
only, and, like body-staining, is nearly always in either red, yellow,
or black. The red stain is obtained from the two sorts of earth used
for red face and body-staining, being, as in the other case, mixed with
water or animal fat, so as to produce a paste. Another source of red
stain used for cloth is the fruit of a wild tree growing in the bush,
which fruit they chew and spit out. I do not know what the tree is,
but I do not think it is the Pandanus, whose fruit is, I believe,
used for body-staining. The yellow stain is obtained from the root of
a plant which I understand to be rather like a ginger. They dry the
root in the sun, and afterwards crush it and soak it in water, and the
water so coloured becomes the pigment to be used. The black stain is
obtained in the same way as that used for face-staining. These dyes are
put on to the cloth with the fingers, which the men dip into the dye,
or with feathers. In making a design they do not copy from a pattern
placed before them, nor do they first trace the design on the cloth.
Netting.
In dealing with netting, I should begin with the making of the string;
but, as I think the method adopted is not confined to the mountains,
it is perhaps sufficient to refer to my previous description of
thread-making in connection with the manufacture of leg-bands;
though in most netting the strings are necessarily very much thicker
and stronger than are the threads used for leg-bands, and they are
three-stranded.
Hunting and fishing nets are made by men in a simple open form of
netting, worked on the common principle of the reef knot, and having
diamond-shaped holes, with a knot at each corner of each hole. I shall
refer to this form of netting as "ordinary network." The nets are made
of thick, strong material, except as regards the hand fishing nets,
which are made of the fine material used for making leg-bands. These
nets are never coloured.
Hammocks are made by men. They are sometimes done entirely with
ordinary network, and are then, I think, similar to Mekeo-made
hammocks; but often only two or three lines of netting are done in
this way, the rest of the net being made in a closer and finer pattern
of interlacing knotless network, which is never adopted on the coast
and Mekeo plains (all nets of this description found there having come
down from the mountains) and which I will call "Mafulu network." [90]
I have watched the making of one of these nets, and will endeavour
to describe the process. The ultimate result of the Mafulu network
part of this is shown in Plate 81.
The maker first formed a base line of three strands of native
string stretched out horizontally. This base line is marked _a b_
in Fig. 8. He then wound a long length of netting string round a
rough piece of stick to be used as a sort of netting shuttle. He next
worked the netting string on to the base line by a series of loops
or slip-knots as shown in Fig. 8, strand _c_ of each loop bending
upwards and becoming strand _d_ of the next loop to the right, and
the series of loops extending for the whole length of the base line,
and thus constituting the first loop line of the net. The hitches of
the loops, which appear loose and open in the figure for the purpose
of showing their construction, were really drawn tight on the base
line. On to these loops he then worked one line of ordinary network,
as shown in Fig. 9, the strings _a b c d_ in this figure being the
loops above mentioned, and the knots of this also being, of course,
drawn tight, and not made loose and open, as shown in the figure. The
base of this line again formed a series made one of these lines of
mesh for my instruction; but it is usual in the making of hammocks to
have two or three of them, as appears in the figure. The next stage
commenced the Mafulu network. The form of this is shown in Fig. 10;
and here again the actual network was more closely drawn than is shown
in the illustration, though it was not drawn tight, as in the case
of the ordinary network. The first line of Mafulu network was worked
on to the loops above it, so as to form a continuous line, in which
many loops of Mafulu work were attached to each loop of the line of
ordinary work above, the former being considerably smaller than the
latter. The rest of the network is similarly made in the Mafulu method,
each loop of each line being connected with a loop of the line above,
until the worker almost reaches the other end of the hammock, which
latter is finished off with ordinary network and a final base line, so
as to correspond with the commencing end. Often there are only four or
five loops of Mafulu network attached to each loop of ordinary network
above them; and I have seen hammocks in which the mesh of the ordinary
network part is much smaller, so that each loop of the bottom line of
this mesh has attached to it only one loop of the top line of Mafulu
mesh; and this last variation is common as regards carrying bags.
The hammocks are never coloured; but they are sometimes decorated
with a few Pandanus or _malage_ seeds hung from their borders.
The different forms of carrying bags have already been referred to. I
will now deal with their manufacture and colouring. They are made
exclusively by women; and the fibres used in their manufacture are
not the same as those employed for making nets and hammocks. I will
deal separately with the five forms already described by me.
Nos. 1 and 2 are made of either ordinary or Mafulu network, and are
never coloured. When these, or any other bags, are made of Mafulu
network, their elasticity is very great. No. 3 is always made of
Mafulu network, and coloured. No. 4 is made of Mafulu network, and
is sometimes coloured, and sometimes not. No. 5 is made of Mafulu
network, and is sometimes coloured. The string used in making this
bag is different from that used for the others, and is obtained from
the bark of a small shrub.
The question of manufacture introduces another form of bag (Plate 53,
Fig 3), which I may call No. 6. It is used by men for the purposes of
No. 4, and No 5 is also sometimes made in the same way. The method of
manufacture of No. 6 is, I was told, an uncommon one; and, though I
was able to procure one of these bags, I had not an opportunity of
observing the process by which it was made. The appearance of the
bag, however, suggests a process not unlike that of knitting. Its
outer surface displays a series of thick, strong trie ord-plaited,
vertical ridges, all close together, and looking very like the outside
ridges of a knitted woollen stocking; but on the inner surface these
ridges are not to be seen, and the general appearance of this inside
is one of horizontal lines. The material of this bag is much closer,
thicker and heavier than is that of any of the others.
The colouring of Nos. 3, 4 and 5 is not put into the netting after
its manufacture, as is done with bark cloth. The string itself is
dyed beforehand, and the lines of colour are worked into the bag in
the process of netting. The colouring is confined to the front of
the bag only, being the part which is visible when the bag is worn
hanging over the back or shoulder. Speaking generally, the colouring
is black; but there is often a little red introduced along with the
black. The pattern is in the general form of parallel horizontal
lines or stripes, which, however, are in places made to recess or
turn downwards or upwards at right angles, and subsequently turn
upwards or downwards again, and then continue horizontally as before,
thus giving variety to the mere design of straight horizontal lines;
and these rectangular breaks are often introduced at more or less
symmetrical intervals. There are other details in these patterns,
which can be observed in the plate. I have one of these bags the
lines in which are blue, red and yellow; but I think this colouring
is not usual. The pigments are obtained from the sources described
above with reference to bark cloth.
The colouring of my specimen of No. 6 bag is also worked into the
bag in the process of knitting, or whatever that process should be
called. But this colouring merely consists of four faint horizontal
lines of pale reddish-brown; and I was told that these bags are
generally uncoloured, or only slightly coloured in thin lines.
The mourning vests worn by chiefs' widows are, I believe, made of
Mafulu network; but unfortunately I did not see one of these, and so
cannot describe them.
Art, Design, etc.
Art and design among the Mafulu people are only of a simple and
primitive type. There is no carving or other decoration on their
houses, or even on their _emone,_ nor is there any on their stone
or wooden implements. Art and design, other than the arrangement
of feather ornaments, is, in fact, apparently confined to the very
simple designs scratched upon some of their broad abdominal belts,
smoking pipes and lime gourds and perhaps occasionally on one
or two other things, and to the plaited designs displayed in the
manufacture of other abdominal belts and of arm and leg ornaments
and plaited forehead ornaments and feather frames, and to the very
simple linear patterns in which some of their network is made, and
the ground-staining and pattern-colouring of their perineal bands,
dancing aprons and ribbons. As regards the latter, the designs are of
a very simple nature, never apparently representing anything either
realistically or conventionally, and being confined to geometric
designs of straight lines and bands, rectangular and zig-zag patterns
with coloured triangles within the zig-zag patterns, and spots. The
patterns of the perineal bands and dancing ribbons are very simple
indeed; but those of the dancing aprons are more elaborate, covering
a considerable surface of cloth, and often displaying a fair variety
of design on the same apron.
The Mafulu have no visible method of recording events or numbers,
or sending messages, either by marks or notches on sticks, or tying
of knots in string, or any other method, and they are quite unable
to grasp the meaning of a map.
The limited nature of the ideas of artistic design possessed by the
Mafulu people is, I think, a matter for surprise. They are believed
to have Papuan or Papuo-Melanesian blood in their veins. But, even
if they also have another distinct and more primitive ancestry of
their own, not associated with the Papuo-Melanesian types, or even
with the pure Papuan types, found on the coast and in the plains,
one would imagine that contact with these types would have caused
the Mafulu people to learn something of the more advanced art which
these other peoples display and that we should not have to record
a sudden drop from artistic designs embodying curves and natural
imitative art to a system confined to straight lines, zig-zags,
and spots. This contact with the coast and plain people, or at all
events with the latter, has certainly existed for some time back;
for, though the mutual fear and antagonism between coast and mountain
natives, which is usually found among savage peoples, has doubtless
existed in this case, and is even now not altogether eradicated, [91]
direct or indirect trading relationship, including in particular the
interchange of the stone implements and feathers of the mountains for
the shell decorations of the coast, is not a mere recent development
of the last few years only. It seems to me that the existence of this
decorative hiatus points to a rather small inherent sense of design in
the Mafulu mind. It may be, however, that the absence of imitative art,
to which I have already referred in connection with totemism and clan
badges, is partly due to the absence of totemism and of the imitative
stimulus, which, as Dr. Haddon has more than once pointed out, [92]
arises from it.