A KANGAROO HUNT
The men of the kampong are planning a kangaroo hunt in the lowlands not
far distant from the kampong. They say the hunt will take two days and
that if we wish to go with them it will be necessary to make provision
ourselves for our food and shelter. They, of course, sleep in rude
palm-leaf lean-tos and subsist on their staple sago cake. The prospect
of witnessing a kangaroo drive fills us with enthusiasm, and with all
speed we prepare to accompany them. Early the next morning we set out
with a light outfit and enough food for two days. By dint of much
coaxing and promises of much tobacco we have persuaded three of the
young men of the tribe to carry our _barang_.
[Illustration: This man confessed to having eaten many human beings. To
estimate the number accurately was beyond his power of reckoning]
[Illustration: The sharp-edged stone war-club in the hands of such men
as these makes quick work of a victim]
The way leads up the coast for about ten miles and thence into the
jungle through swampy tangles of tapa grass to a point three miles from
the ocean. Here we strike camp, and after a hurried meal the hunters go
out to reconnoiter. There are kangaroos in the vicinity; in the course
of our hike into the swampy region we see several of the timid
creatures, which turn at sight of us and bound away to the protection of
the thickets. They are a very small variety of kangaroo and not at all
like the giant bush animal of Australia. The kangaroos of New Guinea
seldom reach a height of over three feet when standing erect.
About seventy of the natives have come to participate in the hunt and
these soon take to the jungle, where they make their way silently to
points which form a semicircle a mile in radius. The center of this
half-circle is a swamp where the water is a foot or so in depth and the
rushes scarce. It is to this place the natives will drive the little
animals when the hunt begins in the morning.
With the earliest signs of dawn the men are up and stirring. A hasty
breakfast concluded, they spread out and start slowly toward the swamp,
beating the brush and thickets with flails and at the same time shouting
at the top of their voices. In this manner they slowly drive the game
before them, though at first the jungle seems to be deserted, so wary
are the animals.
As the men advance and the circle closes up we see now and then
swift-moving dun-colored objects bounding ahead of us through the
half-light of the jungle. The men on the right and left of us nod their
satisfaction, for there seems to be a good-sized herd of kangaroos
enclosed in the converging human trap. Now and then one of the animals
tries to break through the line, but it is almost invariably headed off
and driven back into the thickets ahead.
The men, as the line approaches the swamp, are scarcely six yards apart
and within this close-drawn ring are nearly a hundred of the animals.
The ground has become increasingly marshy, and soon we are wading
ankle-deep in water. As we break through the last thicket the open swamp
is disclosed to view. Here an exciting scene greets our eyes.
Entirely surrounded by a cordon of naked, yelling savages are a hundred
kangaroos leaping and bounding here and there in the swamp, trying to
escape the advancing line of men. Their splashing is prodigious, and
because of their leaping this way and that there seem to be many more of
them than there really are. Their frightened little cries appeal to our
sympathies and we drop out of the line, not caring to engage in the
coming slaughter.
The Kia Kias soon get within striking-distance and in a very short time
the excitement is over. Many of the animals escape, much to our
satisfaction, but when the toll of the hunt is taken there are sixty of
them stretched out on a strip of dry ground which caps a low rise beside
the swamp. The natives are wild with joy at their success, for they tell
us that in their last drive they succeeded in catching only twelve
animals.
Grasping the kangaroos by their powerful hind legs and carrying them
dangling down their backs from the shoulders, the natives set out on the
return to the kampong. Unaccustomed to the bearing of burdens, they stop
for rest frequently and it is late in the afternoon when we enter the
kampong. Here the women greet us with great joy, for their stomachs will
be full for a long time to come. While immediate preparations are made
for roasting some of the animals, the men prepare to cure the remainder
by drying and smoking them.
Strangely enough, there is no attempt to save or cure the skins, and
when we question the savages regarding this, they shake their heads.
They have no use for them, they say, and let it go at that. Wearing no
clothes, they do not require the skins for bodily covering and the only
use they have for leather is for covering the heads of their drums, for
which purpose they invariably use pigskin. A few of the women save
narrow strips of the hide, from which they will make the seed-decorated
bandoleers that some of them affect, but this is the only use to which
they seem to put the skin of the kangaroo. Yet, properly tanned, it
would make admirable leather, for it is as soft as kid.
The dogs make short work of the many skins, eating them hair and all and
disgorging the balled-up hair later. The men save some of the leg bones,
from which they make nose ornaments, but in the main the dogs get these
also. It is surprising how the dogs fatten up after one of these feasts.
Between feasts one can count every rib and the poor creatures are so
gaunt that it would seem an act of mercy to put them out of their
misery. Nature never intended dogs to exist on a diet consisting mainly
of cocoanut. After a feast, however, the dogs drag themselves around
with stomachs bulging. In a few days, and until the bones and meat are
quite gone, their hair is sleek and shiny and in contrast to their
former appearance they are positively fat.
The men and women gorge themselves exactly as the dogs do, with the
result that there is little activity in the kampong until the meat is
entirely consumed. They then fall back on their staple diet until such
time as the women can prevail upon the men to go on another excursion.
The natives generously offer us two of the kangaroos to vary our diet of
tinned goods, but the little animals seem so much like things to be
petted rather than eaten that we thank our hosts warmly and tell them
that, inasmuch as we have plenty of our own kind of food and they have
so little, we could not think of taking their meat from them. The excuse
passes muster with them and they do not press the matter, much to our
satisfaction; for at times it becomes awkward to explain certain things
which to us are a matter of course.