Robert W. Williamson - The Mafulu

R >> Robert W. Williamson >> The Mafulu

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23

Dr. Keith had further measurements made of these skulls from the
point of view of prognathism and characters of noses and orbits,
with the following results:

Skull.
| Basi-nasal length.
| | Basi-alveolar length.
| | | Height of nose.
| | | | Width of nose.
| | | | | Height of orbit.
| | | | | | Width of orbit.

mm. mm. mm. mm. mm. mm.
A 98 102 48 26 40 35
B 99 96 49 25 42 35
C 97 102 47 26 38 35

Dr. Keith, referring to these skulls, says that they disclose
relatively small brains, the cranial capacity of A being 1,230 c.c.,
that of B being 1,330 c.c., and that of C being 1,130 c.c. He compares
these figures with the average cranial capacity of the male European,
which he puts at 1,500 c.c.

The eyes of the Mafulu people are dark brown and very bright. I never
saw among them those oblique eyes, almost recalling the Mongolian,
which, according to Dr. Seligmann, are found, though rarely only,
on the coast, [29] and of which I saw many instances among the
Kuni people.

Their lips are usually not so thick as are those of the Mekeo and
Roro people, and are generally finer and more delicate in shape.

In view of their Papuan language I kept a sharp look out for the
curious backward sloping foreheads and projecting brow ridges and
Jewish-looking noses which are so often found among the Western
Papuans; but, although I saw a few examples of these, they were rare,
and I did not observe any noticeable tendency in these directions in
the faces of the people generally. [30]

A curious characteristic with them is the big toe, which is usually
much developed, and projects outwards at a larger angle than is the
case with the Roro and Mekeo people, and is much used for holding on
to roots, &c., whilst travelling along their rough mountain paths.

Their general colour is a dark sooty brown, a trifle darker, perhaps,
than that of the Kuni people, and contrasting forcibly with the
varying shades of chocolate which you find among the Roro and Mekeo
people. They are smooth-skinned.

Their hair is frizzly, and generally dark brown, often quite dark,
almost even approaching to black, and sometimes perhaps quite
black. But it is frequently lighter; and indeed I was often, when
observing men's hair lit up by sunshine, impressed by the fact that
its brown colour was not even what we should in Europe call dark. [31]
I often saw marked variations in the depth of hair colour on the
head of the same individual. I saw no examples of the comparatively
straight or curly type of hair which is found in the Pokau district
and elsewhere. [32]

Plate 3 gives front and side views of the mesaticephalic (almost
brachycephalic) skull A and Plate 4 gives similar views of the
dolichocephalic skull C. All the photographs were made as nearly as
possible exactly half the sizes of the originals; but the photographer
has made the front view of skull A about an eighth of an inch too
narrow (with, of course, a corresponding deficiency in height), so
that the tendency to roundness of this skull is not quite sufficiently
shown, and the proportion of its height to its length is reduced,
in the plate. I am not a craniologist, and so I do not attempt to
discuss the more detailed points of interest which arise in connection
with these skulls.

A good idea of the somewhat varying characters of the general physiques
and features of the people will be obtained from my plates; but there
are a few of these plates which I may mention here.

The people shown in Plates 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 16 may, I think, be
regarded as fairly typical, and I would draw attention to the somewhat
Melanesian tendency of feature which is disclosed by the faces of
the man in Plate 6, the young man in the middle in Plate 7 and the
fourth and sixth men from the left in Plate 9; also to the great
diversity shown in Plate 9. The man shown in Plate 10, with his thick
and strong muscular development, is of a type which is occasionally
seen, but which is, I believe, unusual. The two men figured in Plates
11 and 12 are, I think, specially interesting. The one to the right,
with his somewhat backward sloping forehead, and slightly arched nose,
shows a distinct tendency towards the type of the Western Papuan, to
which I have already referred. The other one is in general shape of
head and appearance of features not unlike some of the dwarf people
found by the recent expedition into Dutch New Guinea (see the man to
the left in Plate 4 of the page of illustrations in _The Illustrated
London News_ for September 2, 1911), and indeed there is almost an
Australian tendency in his face. It is noticeable that he has a beard
and moustache, which is quite unusual among the Mafulu. A somewhat
similar type of face may be noticed in one or two of the other plates.

Character and Temperament.

It is difficult to speak with any degree of definiteness on this
question. It must be borne in mind that the Mafulu people have been
very little in touch with white people, the missionaries, who have only
been there since 1905, and on rare occasions a Government official or
scientific traveller, being almost the only white men whom the bulk
of them have ever seen; and they have been but slightly affected by
the outside influences which for some years past have been constantly
brought to bear upon the natives of the adjoining coast line and the
people of the Mekeo plains; so that comparisons of these people with
their more up-to-date neighbours as regards their relative natural
characters may well be in some respects misleading.

Subject, however, to this caution I would say that they are lazy
and easy-going (though not so much so as the Roro and Mekeo people),
lively, excitable, cheerful, merry, fairly intelligent (this being
judged rather from the young people), very superstitious, brave,
with much power of enduring pain, cruel, not more revengeful perhaps
than is usual among uncivilised natives, friendly one with another,
not quarrelsome, but untrustworthy and not over-faithful even in
their dealings with one another, though honest as regards boundaries
and property rights and in the sense of not stealing from one another
within their own communities (this being regarded as a most shameful
offence), and of very loose sexual morality.

A difference between them and the Mekeo and Roro natives is that
they appear to be not so conservative as the latter, being more
ready to abandon old traditions and adopt new ideas; though this
characteristic is one which shows itself in the young people rather
than in the elders with their formed habits.

CHAPTER III

Dress and Ornament

Dress.

The perineal band, made of bark cloth, is the one article of dress
which is universally worn by both men and women.

These bands are made by both men and women, but are coloured by men
only. They are commonly unstained and undecorated; but some of them,
and especially those worn for visiting and at dances, are more or
less decorated. Some that I have noticed are stained in one colour
covering the whole garment; others in two colours arranged in alternate
transverse bands, sometimes with narrow spaces of unstained cloth
between; and again others have bands of one colour alternating with
bands of unstained cloth. Some are decorated with lines or groups
of lines of one colour, or alternating lines or groups of lines of
two colours, painted transversely across the cloth. Others, while
simply stained in one colour or stained or decorated in one of the
ways above described, have another simple terminal design near the
end of the garment.

The men's bands are usually small and narrow, as compared with those
worn by the Roro and Mekeo people; and the women's bands seemed to me
to be generally even narrower than those of the men, particularly in
front. Men's bands, which I have measured, were about 6 inches wide at
one end, narrowing down to about 3 inches at the other; and the widths
of women's bands were 4 or 5 inches or less at one end, narrowing
down to about 2 inches at the other. But the bands of both men and
women, especially those of the latter, often become so crumpled up and
creased with wear that the portion passing between the legs dwindles
down to about an inch or less in width. One is tempted to think, as
regards both men and women, that, from the point of view of covering,
the bands might be dispensed with altogether. This remark applies
still more strongly to the case of young boys and unmarried girls,
including among the latter big full-grown girls, who are in fact
fully developed women, whose bands can hardly be regarded as being
more than nominal, and who, especially the girls and young women,
and even sometimes married women who are nursing their babies, can
really only be described as being practically naked.

Plate 13 (Figs, 1, 2, and 3) illustrates the staining and decoration
of perineal bands. [33] Fig. 1 is a section of a man's band about
6 inches wide. The transverse lines, which extend along the whole
length of the band, are in alternate groups of black and red. The
background is unevenly stained yellow behind the black lines; but the
background behind the red lines and the spaces intervening between the
groups of lines are unstained. Fig. 2 is the pattern near the end of
a woman's band about 5 inches wide. The lines are coloured red. There
is no pattern on the rest of the band; but the whole of the band,
including the background of the pattern, is stained yellow. Fig. 3 is
a section of a woman's band about 2 1/2 inches wide. The colouring
is in alternate bands of red and yellow with irregular unstained
spaces between.

I was struck with the gradual reduction of the women's dress as I
travelled from the coast, with its Roro inhabitants, through Mekeo,
and thence by Lapeka and Ido-ido to Dilava, and on by Deva-deva to
Mafulu. The petticoats of the Roro women gave way to the shorter
ones of Mekeo, and these seemed to get shorter as I went further
inland. Then at Lapeka they were still shorter. At Ido-ido, which
is Kuni, the petticoats ceased, and there was only the perineal
band. Then, again, at Dilava (still Kuni) this band was narrower,
and at Deva-deva, and finally at Mafulu, it was often, as I have said,
almost nominal.

I was told that the age at which a boy usually begins to wear his
band is about 10 or 12, or in the case of a chief's son 16 or 17;
but that girls assume their bands at a somewhat earlier age, say at
7 or 8. So far as my personal observation went I should have thought
that the usual maximum age of nakedness for both boys and girls was
rather younger, and I never saw a naked boy of an age anything like 16.

The assumption of the perineal band is the subject of a ceremony
which will be dealt with hereafter.

Caps are very often worn by men, but not by women or children. These
are simply pieces of plain unstained bark cloth about 9 inches wide,
which are coiled and twisted on the head. The result is often a
shapeless mass; but there are methods of arranging the cloth in
definite ways which produce describable results. Sometimes the cloth
is merely coiled several times around the head, so as to produce
a tall thin turban-shaped band, the crown of the head being left
uncovered. Often this plan is extended by turning the end of the
cloth over, so as to cover the top of the head, thus producing in
some cases a result which resembles a fez, and in other cases one
which looks more like a tight skullcap. Again the cap often has its
centre terminating in an end or tassel hanging over, thus making it
look like a cap of liberty; and yet again I have seen the cap look
almost like the square paper caps often worn by certain artisans at
home. These caps are seen in several of the plates.

Abdominal belts are commonly worn by both men and women, but not as
a rule by children. There are several distinct forms of these:--

(1) A thick strong dark-coloured belt (Plate 14, Fig. I) made of tree
bark; made and worn by men only. The belt is about 3 or more inches
wide and is often so long that it passes twice round the body, the
outer end being fastened to the coil beneath it by two strings. This
form of belt is sometimes ornamented with simple straight-lined
geometric patterns carved into the belt, but it is never coloured. The
process of manufacture is as follows: they cut off a strip of bark
large enough for one, two, three, or four belts, and coil it up in
concentric circles, like the two circles of the belt when worn. They
then place it so coiled into water, and leave it there to soak for
a few days, after which they strip off the outer part, leaving the
smooth inner bark, which they dry, and finally cut into the required
lengths, to which they add the attachment strings made of native fibre.

(2) A belt made of a material looking like split cane and thin strips
from the fibre of what I was told was a creeping plant [34]; made
and worn by men only. The latter material is obtained by splitting
the fibre into thin strips. These strips and the strips of split
cane-like material are rather coarse in texture. The former are of
a dull red-brown colour (natural, not produced by staining) and the
latter are stone-yellow. The two are plaited together in geometric
patterns. The width of the belt is about 2 inches. It only passes once
round the man's body; and the plaiting is finished with the belt on
the body, so that it can only afterwards be removed by unplaiting or
cutting it off.

(3) A belt (Plate 14, Fig. 2) made of stone-yellow unsplit cane;
made and worn by both men and women. This is the simplest form of
belt, being merely a strip of cane intertwined (not plaited) so as
to form a band about half an inch wide, and left the natural colour
of the cane. Both men and women, when short of food, use this belt
to reduce the pain of hunger, by tightening it over the stomach. It
is, therefore, much worn during a period of restricted diet prior to
a feast. Women also use it, along with their other ordinary means,
to bring about abortion, the belt being for this purpose drawn very
tightly round the body. Often two, or even three, such belts are
worn together.

(4) A belt (Plate 14, Fig. 3) made of coarse, sometimes very coarse,
stone-yellow split cane or cane-like material; made and worn by men
only. This belt is left the natural colour of the material, which is
plaited so as to form a band from half an inch to 2 inches broad, the
two ends of which are bound together with cane. It also, like No. 2,
is finished on the body. A man will often wear two or three of these
belts together.

(5) A belt (Plate 15, Fig. i) made out of the inner fibre of a creeping
plant [35]; made and worn by men only. The fibre threads used for
this belt are very fine, so the plaiting is minute, instead of being
coarse like that of No. 2; but it is generally done rather loosely
and openly. The belt is usually about 2 inches wide or a trifle less
and is often plaited in slightly varying geometric patterns. It is
not stained in manufacture, but the natural stone-grey colour of the
fibre soon becomes tinted as the result of wear and the staining of
the wearer's body, and in particular it often becomes an ornamental
red. This belt also is finished on the man's body.

(6) A belt (Plate 15, Fig. 2) made of the inner fibre of what I was
told was another creeping plant [36] and the stem of a plant which
I believe to be one of the Dendrobiums [37]; made and worn by men
only. The fibres of the former plant are stained black; the reedy stems
of the other plant are put in short bamboo stems filled with water,
and then boiled. They are then easily split up into flattish straws,
and become a colour varying from rather bright yellow to brown. For
making the belt these two materials, looking rather like black and
bright yellow straw, are plaited together in various geometrical
patterns. The width of the belt is 2 inches, or a trifle more. It is
tied at the ends with fibre string.

(7) A rather special form of belt (Plate 15, Fig. 3) used mainly for
visiting and dancing; made and worn by both men and women. The belt is
made out of a hank of loose separate strands between 4 and 5 feet long,
tied together with string or bark cloth at two opposite points, so as
to form a belt of between 2 feet and 2 feet 6 inches in length. For
better description I would liken it to a skein of wool, as it looks
when held on the hands of one person for the purpose of being wound
off into a ball by someone else, but which, instead of being wound
off, is tied up at the two points where it passes round the hands of
the holder, and is then pulled out into a straight line of double the
original number of strands, and so forms a single many-stranded belt
of 2 feet or more in length. It is fastened round the waist with a
piece of bark cloth attached to one of the points where the hank has
been tied up. [38]

The number of strands is considerable. Belts examined by me and counted
gave numbers varying from eighteen to thirty-five, and the number of
strands of the belt round the body would be double that. Each strand
is made of three parts plaited together, and is one-eighth of an inch
or less in width. Various materials, including all the materials
used for armlets (see below), are employed for making these belts,
some for one and some for another. Sometimes a belt has its strands
all plaited out of one material only, in which case the belt will
be all of one colour. Sometimes its strands are plaited out of two
different coloured materials. There is no colouring of the belt,
except that of its strands.

Belt No. 1, as worn, is seen in Plates 9 and 11. Belt No. 3 is worn by
the man at the extreme right in Plate 16. It is worn by many of the
women figured in the plates, and several of them have two belts. One
of the women figured in Plates 18 and 19 has three of them. Belt No. 4
is worn by one of the men figured in Plates 7 and 8 (he has three of
them). Belt No. 7 is worn by one or two of the women figured in the
frontispiece, the one to the extreme right having a many-stranded belt,
and it is excellently illustrated in Plate 17.

Capes made of bark cloth are made and worn by men and women. They are
only put on after recovery from an illness by which the wearer has
been laid up, including childbirth. The cape is simply a plain long
narrow piece of undyed bark cloth. The corners of one end are fastened
together, and the whole of that end is bunched up into a sort of hood,
which is placed over the head, whilst the rest of the cloth hangs
down as a narrow strip behind. The cape in no way covers or conceals
any part of the body when viewed from the front or side. It is only
worn for a few days; but whilst wearing it the wearer discards all,
or nearly all, his or her ornaments. I could learn no reason for the
custom. Plates 18 and 19 show these capes, and the way in which they
are worn.

Mourning strings (Plate 30, Fig. 1) are made and worn by both men and
women. These are plain undecorated necklaces varying much in size and
appearance; sometimes they are made of undyed twisted bark cloth, and
vary in thickness from one-sixteenth of an inch to an inch; sometimes
they are only made of string, and are quite thin. There is always
an end or tassel to the necklace, made out of the extremities of the
neck part, and hanging in front over the chest; and, if the necklace
is of string, and not of bark cloth, some bark cloth is twisted round
this tassel. This sign of grief is after a death worn by the widow or
widower or other nearest relative (male or female) of the deceased;
and at times two people of equal degree of relationship will both wear
it. It is worn until the formal ending of the mourning. The woman to
the extreme right in Plate 26 is wearing one of these.

Widows' vests. These are mourning garments, only worn by the widows of
chiefs. The garment, which is made by women, is a vest made of string
network (like a string bag), the mesh of which is the special Mafulu
mesh, which will be described hereafter, and it is not coloured. It
is plainly and simply made, with openings at the top for the neck,
and at the sides for the arms (no sleeves), and coming down to
about the waist, without any other opening either in front or at the
back. This garment is also worn until the formal end of the period
of mourning. [39] I was unable to secure a picture of one of these.

There is no special dress for chiefs to distinguish them from other
people.

European calico clothing has not been adopted by these people, even
in the district where they are in touch with the missionaries. Indeed
I may say that the people, happily for their own health, show no
inclination to wear more clothing; and no doubt as a result of their
conservatism in this respect they escape many a fatal cold and attack
of pneumonia, and the spread of infectious skin diseases is somewhat
reduced. I may also add that the Bishop and Fathers of the Mission
do not attempt, or seem to desire, to urge the people who come under
their influence to endanger their health and their lives for the sake
of conforming to views as to clothing which have played such havoc
with tropical natives in many parts of the globe. [40]

Physical Body Decoration, &c.

Tattooing and body-scarring are not practised by either men or women
among the Mafulu.

Depilation. When a young man's beard begins to grow, the hairs
of the beard and moustache and eye-brows are extracted. No other
depilation is practised by men, and none whatever by women; and none
of them shave any part of the body. The depilation is effected with
two fibre threads twisted round each other, the hair to be extracted
being inserted between the threads. Anyone can do this, and there is
no ceremony connected with it.

Nose-piercing. The septa of the noses of both men and women are
pierced at or after the age of 15 or 18, and either before or after
marriage. This is done for men by men, and for women by women. There
is no special person whose duty it is to do it, but he or she must
be one who knows the incantations which are required. There is no
restriction as to diet or otherwise placed upon the operator prior
to the operation, but there is a day's food restriction imposed upon
the person whose nose is to be pierced.

Two instruments are used for the operation, one being a piercing
instrument made of pig bone and sharpened, and the other being a small
wooden plug, also sharpened. The operator first visibly, but silently,
engages in two incantations, during the former of which he holds up
the thumb and first finger of his right hand, and during the latter
of which he holds up the two instruments. He then with the thumb
and first finger of his right hand holds the septum of the nose of
the person to be operated upon, whom I will call the "patient," and
with the left hand pierces the septum with the bone instrument. He
next inserts the wooden plug into the hole, so as to make it larger,
and leaves the plug there. Then he takes a blade of grass, which he
also inserts through the hole, by the side of the plug, and, holding
the grass by the two ends, he makes it rotate round and round the
plug. This is a painful process, which frequently causes tears and
cries from the patient. He then probably goes through the same process
with various other patients, as it is the custom to operate on several
persons at the same time.

The patients are then all lodged in houses built for the purpose, one
house being for men and one for women. These are not houses which are
kept permanently standing, but are specially built on each occasion
on which the nose-boring operation is going to be performed. A great
swelling of the patients' noses develops, and this spreads more or
less over their faces. The patients are confined in the special houses
until the holes in their noses are large enough and the wounds are
healed. During this confinement each patient has himself to do what
is requisite to further enlarge the hole by the insertion into it from
time to time of pieces of wood and by putting in rolled up leaves and
pushing pieces of wood inside these leaves. During all this period he
is not allowed to come out of the house, at all events not so as to be
seen, and his diet is confined to sweet potato, cooked in a certain
way. The cooking for all the patients, men and women, is done by the
woman nose-piercing operator, assisted by other women. The potatoes
are wrapped up in leaves (usually banana), each potato being generally
wrapped up separately in one or more leaves; and, when so wrapped up,
they are cooked in red-hot ashes, and then taken to the houses where
the patients are.

When the hole in any patient's nose has reached the requisite size,
and the wound is healed, he inserts a large croton leaf [41] into
the hole; he may then come out and return to his own house, retaining
the croton leaf in his nose. He must next occupy himself in searching
for a black non-poisonous snake about 12 or 18 inches long, which is
commonly found in the grass. I cannot say what snake this is, but
I am advised that it is probably _Tropidonotus mairii_. Its native
name is _fal' ul' obe_, which means "germ of the ground." Until he
finds this snake he must keep the croton leaf in his nose, and is
still under the same restriction as to food, which is cooked in the
same way and by the same persons as before. On finding the snake,
he secures it alive, removes the croton leaf from the hole in his
nose, and inserts into it the tail end of the living snake; then,
holding the head of the snake in one of his hands, and the tail in
the other, he draws the snake slowly through the hole, until its head
is close to the hole. He then lets the head drop from his hand, and
with a quick movement of the other hand draws it through the nose,
and throws the snake, still living, away. [42] This completes the
nose-piercing; but there still rests upon the patient the duty of
going to the river, and there catching an eel, which he gives to the
people who have been feeding him during his illness.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23