Robert W. Williamson - The Mafulu

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[73] Dr. Seligmann refers to this custom among the Roro people
(_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 256), and there is no doubt
that it exists among the Mekeo people also. Father Desnoes, of the
Sacred Heart Mission, told me that in Mekeo, though the pig used to
be given when the boy adopted his perineal band at the age of four,
five, six, or seven, it is now generally given earlier. The pig is
there regarded as the price paid for the child, and is called the
child's _engifunga_.

[74] Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 67.

[75] Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 71.

[76] _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 21.

[77] In Mekeo such a devolution of chieftainship is the occasion for
a very large feast.

[78] This ceremony is different from the Mekeo ceremony on the
elevation by a chief of his successor to a joint chieftainship, of
which some particulars were given to me by Father Egedi; but there
is an element of similarity to a Mekeo custom for the new chief,
after the pigs have been killed and partly cut up by someone else,
to cut the backs of the pigs in slices.

[79] According to Dr. Seligmann, among the Koita the forbidden
degrees of relationship extend to third cousins (_Melanesians of
British New Guinea_, p. 82); whereas it will be seen that among the
Mafulu it only extends, as between people of the same generation,
to first cousins. But a Mafulu native who was grandson of the common
ancestor would be prohibited from marrying his first cousin once
removed (great-granddaughter of that ancestor) or his first cousin
twice removed (great-great-granddaughter of that ancestor).

[80] But see p. 178, note 1.

[81] Half-a-dozen years ago, before open systematic killing and
cannibalism were checked, it was a Kuni custom, when a woman died in
her confinement, to bury the living baby with the dead mother. I have
not heard of this custom in Mafulu, and do not know whether or not it
exists, or has existed, there; but as regards matters of this sort the
Mafulu and the Kuni are very similar. My statement that there is no
burying alive must be taken subject to the possibility of this custom.

[82] This custom is found elsewhere.

[83] From Dr. Haddon's distribution chart in Vol. XVI. of _The
Geographical Journal_, it will be seen that the Mafulu district is
just about at the junction between his spear area and his bow and
arrow area.

[84] I have never seen the animal called the "Macgregor bear," and I
do not know what it is. The Fathers assured me it was a bear; but in
view of the great unlikelihood of this, I consulted the authorities
at the Natural History Museum, and they think it is probably one of
the marsupials. It is named after Sir William Macgregor. It is found
in the mountains, where the forest is very thick.

[85] Compare the Motumotu (Toaripi) practice of rubbing the dogs'
mouths with a special plant, referred to by Chalmers (_Pioneering in
New Guinea_, p. 305).

[86] The birds of paradise which dance in trees include, I was told,
what the Fathers called the "Red," the "Blue," the "Black," the
"Superb" and the "Six-feathered." Those which dance on the ground
include the "Magnificent."

[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 stitch 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
manuscript 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 (Varanus), 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 "Cassowary" dance; and Father Egedi
says it is certainly so called because its movements are in some way
an imitation of those of the cassowary.

[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
relationships 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 shell.

[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, substitute 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 class
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 associated 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 grass 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 superstitious
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 superstitious origin may be assumed
as regards the idea of general purification (I of course do not refer
to mere physical surface washing) 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
Massim). 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.

[129] The Rev. Father Egedi's Vocabulary of Oru Lopiko gives the
pronouns thus:

Singular. Plural.

1st Person, _na_, _naro_. _dae_, _daro_.
2nd Person, _ni_, _niro_. _ali_, _alero_.
3rd Person, _pi_, _piro_. _valo_, _valoro_.

The Possessives are formed with _ma_: _nema_, _nima_, _pima_, _daema_,
_lima_, _valoma_.

The Interrogatives are: _tsia_? who? _itara_? _vaina_? what
thing? (S.H.R.)

[130] These numerals differ from the Oru Lopiko of Father Egidi. He
gives: _konepu_, one; _kalotolo_, two; _konekhalavi_, three;
_maimitara_, many; _onionipu_, few. (S.H.R.)

[131] Foot's joint.

[132] Cf. M. _kon(on)de_, knot in wood.

[133] Cf. Fire.

[134] Cf. M. _tobo_, gourd.

[135] Probably introduced. Mekeo _avaava_, Pokau _tavatava_, buy.

[136] Introduced. Motu _asi_.

[137] Cf. M. _kon(on)de_, knot in wood.

[138] Cf. Fire.

[139] Cf. Finger.

[140] Cf. bag.

[141] Sun its light.

[142] _Na,_ I.

[143] Arm's joint.

[144] Cf. M. _kon(on)de,_ knot in wood.

[145] Eyebrow's hair.

[146] Eye-skin.

[147] _Nu,_ thou.

[148] Cf. Branch.

[149] _Feneme_, eel.

[150] Cf. _tala(pe)_, sp. thread.

[151] Finger's mother.

[152] Cf. Earth.

[153] Foot's hollow. Cf. Pumpkin.

[154] Cf. Earth.

[155] _Nu_, thou.

[156] Hand's hollow.

[157] _ Ni_, you.

[158] Side's tongue.

[159] Introduced (Motu, _Kimai_).

[160] _omen_, his.

[161] Also handcuffs.

[162] _Nu_, thou.

[163] To give the breast.

[164] _aumen_, his?.

[165] _Cf._ Finger.

[166] Breast, its nose.

[167] Nose, its hole.

[168] Introduced (Kabadi, Motu, _bara_).

[169] Kabadi, &c., _nau_.

[170] Sagopalm's important part.

[171] _Na_, I.

[172] Sit and Stay.

[173] _Cf._ M. ememe, _pierce._

[174] _Cf._ Night, Darkness, Black.

[175] _Cf._ M. _tsibe_, a reed.

[176] _Cf._ M. _usi(le_), tusk.

[177] _Omen_, he, his.

[178] _Cf_. Mother.

[179] Hand's neck.

[180] _Yango(ne_) a plant of which the roots give a yellow stain

[181] _British New Guinea Vocabularies_. London: The Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[182] _A Comparative Vocabulary of the Dialects of British New
Guinea_. Compiled by Sidney H. Ray. London, 1895.

[183] _Annual Report on British New Guinea_. 1896-7, p. 13.

[184] _Annual Report on British New Guinea_. 1897-8, p. 35.

[185] _British New Guinea. Annual Report for the Year ending 30th
June_, 1906. p. 93.

[186] _Anthropos II, Heft_ 6. pp. 1016-1021.

[187] In comparing I have omitted the non-essential syllable.

[188] _Anthropos_, II. _Heft_ 6, pp. 1009-1021.

[189] _Op. cit._, p. 1009.

[190] _Op. cit._, pp. 1016-1021.

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