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
Dancing aprons are made out of bark cloth by both men and women,
but coloured by men only. The apron, which is worn at dances by women
only, is about 6 to 12 inches wide. It is worn, as shown in Plate 35,
in front of the body, being passed over the abdominal belt or a cord
so as to hang over it in two folds, one behind the other; and the
front fold, which is the part which shows (the back fold being more
or less concealed), and is generally 18 inches to 2 feet in length,
has at its base a fringe made by cutting the end of the cloth up into
strips, equal or unequal in width, the number of which may be only six
or less, or may be fifteen or twenty. The front fold is often wholly
or partly stained, the colour of the stain being usually yellow, and
is always more or less covered with a decorative design, the colours
of which are usually black and red. The back fold is generally stained
yellow, but never has any design upon it. The fringe is also usually
stained yellow, and is without design, except occasionally perhaps
a few horizontal lines of colour.
I may say here, as regards these colours, that, so far as my
observation went, the colours of the decorative patterns were always
black and red, and the general staining was always yellow; and indeed
the last-mentioned colour does not show up against the natural colour
of the cloth sufficiently clearly to adapt it for actual design
work. I am not, however, prepared to say that this allocation of
the colours is in fact an invariable one; and, as I know that red
is used for general staining of perineal bands and dancing ribbons,
it is possible that it, as well as yellow, is used for aprons.
Numerous variations of design are to be found in these garments;
and indeed I may say that it is in these and in the feather head
decorations that the Mafulu people mainly indulge such artistic powers
as they possess.
Plates 36 to 43 are examples of decoration of the front folds of
these dancing aprons [47]; and I give the following particulars
concerning them, first stating that, subject to what may appear in
my particulars, the darker lines and spots represent black ones in
the apron, and the lighter ones represent red ones.
Plate.
| Average width of apron in inches.
| | Notes on ground staining and other matters.
36 6 1/2 Background of design unstained, but back fold of
apron and fringe stained yellow.
37 [48] 7 3/4 Ditto ditto ditto
38 5 1/4 Only a little irregular yellow staining behind the
design. Back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow.
39 6 Background of design (except fringe part) unstained,
but back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow.
40 7 Background of upper (zig-zag) part of design unstained,
but that of lower (rectangular) part and whole of
back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow.
41 10 1/2 Faintly tinted broad horizontal and vertical lines
and triangles in figure represent yellow stain. No
other staining in the apron.
42 6 3/4 Background of design unstained, but back fold end of
apron and fringe stained yellow.
43 6 3/4 No background staining in the apron. The smallness
of the amount of decoration and the substitution of
two tails for a fringe are, I think, unusual.
Dancing ribbons are made out of bark cloth by both men and women,
but are coloured by men only. These are worn by both men and women at
dances, the ribbons hanging round the body from the abdominal belt or a
cord, three or four or five of them being worn by one person, and one
of these commonly hanging in front. They are generally 2 or 3 inches
wide and about 4 feet long, but a portion of this length is required
for hitching the ribbon round the belt. I think their ornamentation
is confined to staining in transverse bands of alternating colour or
of one colour and unstained cloth. Plate 13, Fig. 4, illustrates the
colouring of two ribbons (each 2 inches wide), the alternation in one
case being red and yellow, and in the other red and unstained cloth;
and the men figured in Plate 70 are wearing ribbons, though they are
not very clearly shown in the plate.
The feather ornaments for the head, and especially those worn at
dances, and the feather ornaments worn on the back at dances present
such an enormous variety of colours and designs that it would be
impossible to describe them here without very greatly increasing the
length of the book. The ornaments are often very large, sometimes
containing eight or ten or even twelve rows of feathers, one behind
another. They can usually be distinguished from those made by the Mekeo
people by a general inferiority in design and make of the ornament as
a whole, the Mafulu people having less artistic skill in this respect
than the people of the lowlands. The ornaments include feathers of
parrots, cockatoos, hornbills, cassowaries, birds of paradise, bower
birds and some others. One never or rarely sees feathers of sea-birds,
or waterfowl, or Goura pigeons (which, I was told, are not found among
the mountains), as the Mafulu people in their trading with the people
of the plains take in exchange things which they cannot themselves
procure, rather than feathers, which are so plentiful with them.
The black cassowary feather is important in Mafulu as being the
special feather distinction of chiefs; but, though chiefs are as
a rule possessed of more and better ornaments than are the poorer
and unimportant people, they have no other special and distinctive
ornament.
Plates 44 and 45 illustrate some of these head feather ornaments. Plate
44, Fig. 1, shows an ornament made out of the brown fibrous exterior of
the wild betel-nut, black pigeon feathers and white cockatoo feathers,
the betel fibre and black pigeon feathers being, I was told, only
used in the mountains. Plate 44, Fig. 2, shows one made out of brown
feathers of young cassowary, white cockatoo feathers and red-black
parrot feathers. Plate 44, Fig. 3, shows one made out of bright red
and green parrot feathers. Plate 45, Fig. 1, shows one made out
of black cassowary feathers, white cockatoo feathers, red parrot
feathers and long red feathers of the bird of paradise. Plate 45,
Fig. 2, is made of cassowary feathers only. This ornament is worn in
front of the head, over the forehead, and is specially worn by chiefs.
Plate 46, Fig. 1, shows a head feather ornament which is peculiar
to the mountains. The crescent-shaped body of the ornament, which is
made of short feathers taken from the neck of the cassowary, is worn
in front over the forehead, and the cockade of hawk feathers stands
up over the head.
Plate 46, Fig. 2, shows a back ornament of cassowary feathers which
is specially intended to be worn by chiefs at dances. The custom is
to have from five to twelve of these ornaments hanging vertically
side by side, suspended to a horizontal stick, which is fastened on
the chief's back at the height of the shoulders, so that the feathers
hang like a mantle over his back. The mode in which feather ornaments
for the back are hung on sticks is seen in Plate 70, where a stick
with pendant ornaments is being held by two boys in front.
Plaited frames (Plate 47) are worn by men in connection with these head
feather ornaments. These frames are flat curved bands, rigid or nearly
so, generally forming half or nearly half a circle of an external
diameter of about 9 inches, and being about 1 inch in width. They
are worn at dances and on solemn occasions. They are placed round
the top of the forehead, not vertically, but with their upper edges
sloping obliquely forward, and have at their ends strings, which pass
over the ears and are tied at the back of the head. These frames help
to support the feather ornaments, and prevent them from falling down
over the face. They are made by men only. A groundwork of small split
cane or other material runs in parallel curved lines from end to end,
single pieces of the material being generally doubled back at the ends
so as to form several lines; and this is strengthened and ornamented
by interplaiting into it either split cane or some other material
obtained from the splitting of the inside fibre of a plant in the way
previously referred to. There are varieties of material and of pattern
worked up in different designs of interplaiting. Some of the materials
are uncoloured or merely the natural colour of the material, and others
are in two colours, generally brown or reddish-brown and yellow. These
frames display a considerable amount of variety of artistic design.
The feather erections used at special and important dances, and
especially those worn by chiefs, are enormous things, towering 6
or 12 feet above the wearer's head, and are generally larger than
those of Mekeo. They are held in a framework, which has an inverted
basket-shaped part to rest on the head, and downward pointing rods,
which are tied to the shoulders. The frames are to a great extent
similar to those of Mekeo, but, having a larger burden to bear, they
are more strongly made. These feather erections and their frames are
seen in Plate 70.
Here, as in other parts of New Guinea, both men and women, but
especially men, love to decorate themselves with bright flowers and
leaves and grasses, these being worn in the hair and in bunches stuck
into their belts, armlets and leg-bands, and indeed in any places
where they can be conveniently fastened.
It is not the practice with the Mafulu for mothers to wear the
umbilical cords of any of their children, though apparently the Kuni
people do so.
CHAPTER IV
Daily Life and Matters Connected with It
Daily Life.
The early morning finds the wife and young children and unmarried
daughters in the house. The husband has been sleeping either there
or in the _emone_ (clubhouse), but most probably the latter. The
unmarried sons are in the _emone_, except any very young ones, who
have not been formally admitted to it in a way which will be hereafter
described. The women cook the breakfast for the whole family inside the
house at about six or seven o'clock, and then take the food of the men
to the _emone_. After breakfast most of the men and women go off to the
gardens and the bush. The women's work there is chiefly the planting
of sweet potatoes, taro and other things, and cleaning the gardens;
and in the afternoon they get food from the gardens and firewood from
the bush, all of which they bring home to the village; also they have
to clear off the undergrowth from newly cleared bush. The men's work is
mainly the yam and banana and sugar-cane planting, each in its season,
and the cutting down of big trees and making fences, if they happen to
be opening out new garden land. They also sometimes help the women with
their work. Or they may have hunting expeditions in the bush, or go
off in fishing parties to the river. In all matters the men of Mafulu,
though lazy, are not so lazy as those of Mekeo and the coast. In the
middle of the day the women cook the meal for everyone in the gardens,
this being done on the spot, and there they all eat it. At three, four,
or five o'clock all the people of the village have returned to it,
except perhaps when they are very busy taking advantage of good weather
for making new clearings or other special work. In the evening they
have another meal cooked in the village. At every meal in the village
the pigs have to be fed also, these sharing the food of the people
themselves, or feeding on raw potatoes. Unless there is dancing going
on, or they are tempted by a fine moonlight night to sit out talking,
the people all terminate their routine day by going to bed early.
As regards the daily social conduct of the people among themselves,
I was told that the members of a family generally live harmoniously
together (subject as regards husbands and wives to the matters which
will be mentioned later), that children are usually treated kindly
and affectionately by their parents, and that there is very little
quarrelling within a village; and what I saw when I was among the
Mafulu people certainly seemed to confirm all this.
There are various detailed matters of daily life which will appear
under their appropriate headings; but I will here deal with a few
of them.
Food.
The vegetable foods of the Mafulu people are sweet potato and other
plants of the same type, yam and other foods of the same type, taro and
other foods of that type, banana of different sorts, sugar-cane, a kind
of wild native bean, a cultivated reed-like plant with an asparagus
flavour (what it is I do not know), several plants of the pumpkin and
cucumber type, one of them being very small, like a gherkin, fruit from
two different species of Pandanus, almonds, the fruit of the _malage_
(described later on), and others, both cultivated and wild. The
sugar-cane is specially eaten by them when working in the gardens. [49]
Their animal food consists of wild pig and, on occasions, village pig,
a small form of cassowary, kangaroo, a small kind of wallaby, kangaroo
rat, "iguana," an animal called _gaivale_ (I could not find out what
this is), various wild birds, fish, eels, mice, a large species of
snake and other things.
Their staple drink is water, but when travelling they cut down a
species of bamboo, and drink the watery fluid which it contains. After
boiling any food in bamboo stems they drink the water which has been
used for the purpose, and which has become a sort of thin flavoured
soup.
Betel-chewing is apparently not indulged in by these people as
extensively as it is done in Mekeo and on the coast; but they like it
well enough, and for a month or so before a big feast, during which
period they are under a strict taboo restriction as to food, they
indulge in it largely. The betel used by them is not the cultivated
form used in Mekeo and on the coast, but a wild species, only about
half the size of the other; and the lime used is not, as in Mekeo
and on the coast, made by grinding down sea-shells, but is obtained
from the mountain stone, which is ground down to a powder. The gourds
(Plate 51, Figs. 6 and 7) in which the lime is carried are similar to
those used in Mekeo, except that usually they are not ornamented, or,
if they are so, the ornamentation is only done in simple straight-lined
geometric patterns. The spatulae are sometimes very simply and rudely
decorated. The people spit out the betel after chewing, instead of
swallowing it, as is the custom in Mekeo.
Cooking and Eating and Their Utensils.
They have no cooking utensils, other than the simple pieces of bamboo
stem, which they use for boiling.
Their usual methods of cooking are roasting and boiling.
Roasting is usually effected by making a fire, letting it die
down into red-hot ashes, and then putting the food without wrap or
covering into the ashes, turning it from time to time. They also
roast by holding the food on sticks in the flame of the burning fire,
turning it occasionally. Stone cooking is adopted for pig and other
meats. They make a big fire, on the top of which they spread the
stones; when the stones are hot enough, they remove some of them,
place the meat without wrap or covering on the others, then place the
removed stones on the meat, and finally pile on these stones a big
covering of leaves to keep in the heat. Stone cooking in the gardens
is done in a slightly different way; there they dig in the ground a
round hole about 1 foot deep and from 1 1/2 to 2 feet in diameter, and
in this hole they make their fire, on which they pile their stones;
and the rest of the process is the same as before. This hole-making
process is never adopted in the village. The only reason for it which
was suggested was that the method was quicker, and that in the gardens
they are in a hurry. Of course, holes of this sort dug in the open
village enclosure would be a source of danger, especially at night.
Boiling is done in pieces of bamboo about 4 inches in diameter
and about 15 or 18 inches long. They fill these with water, put the
food into them, and then place or hold the bamboo stems in a slanting
position in the flames. This method is specially used for cooking sweet
potatoes, but it is their only method of boiling anything. Water, which
they keep stored and carry in bamboo receptacles and hollow pumpkins,
is boiled in bamboo stems in the same way. The bamboo storage vessels
are generally from 2 to 5 feet long, the intersecting nodes, other
than that at one end, having been removed. The pumpkins (Plate 52,
Figs. 2 and 3) are similar to those used by the Roro coast people and
in Mekeo, except that the usual form, instead of being rather short
and broad with a narrow opening, is longer and narrower, some of them
being, say, 3 feet long, and often very curved and crooked in shape.
Their only eating utensils are wooden dishes and small pieces of wood,
or sometimes of cassowary or kangaroo bone, which are used as forks,
and pieces of split bamboo, which are used for cutting meat; but these
latter are used for other purposes, and rather come within the list
of ordinary implements, and will be there described. They also use
prepared pig-bones as forks; but these again are largely used for
other purposes, and will be described under the same heading.
The dishes (Plate 52, Fig. 1) are made out of the trunk of a tree
called _ongome_. The usual length of a dish, without its handles,
is between 1 and 2 feet; its width varies from 9 inches to 1 foot,
and its depth from 3 to 6 inches. It is rudely carved out of the
tree-trunk, [50] the work being done with stone adzes--unless they
happen to possess European axes--and it generally has a handle at one
or both ends. It is not decorated with carving in any way. The common
form of handle is merely a simple knob about 3 inches long and 1 1/2
inches wide. But it is sometimes less simple, and I have a dish one
of the handles of which is divided into two projecting pieces about
7 1/2 inches long and joined to each other at the end. The handle
is always carved out of the same piece of wood as is the dish;
never made separately and afterwards attached. The wooden forks
are simply bits cut from trees and sharpened at one end, and they
are without prongs. Their use is only temporary, and they are not
permanently stored as household utensils. The cassowary and kangaroo
bone implements (Plate 25, Fig. 3) are also merely roughly pointed
unpronged pieces of bone, and otherwise without special form. When
eating _en famille_ they do not always use these pointed wooden and
bone sticks, but very commonly take the food out of the dish with
their hands only; but if the family had guests with them they would
probably use the sticks more, and their hands less. The men and women
often eat together, sitting round the dish and helping themselves
out of it, though, if there are too many to do this conveniently,
pieces will be handed out to some of them.
Various Implements.
Besides the cooking and eating implements above described and
other things, such as weapons of war and of hunting and fishing,
and implements for manufacture, agriculture and music, which will be
dealt with under their own headings, there are a few miscellaneous
things which may be conveniently described here.
Bamboo knives (Plate 51, Fig. 5). These are simple strips made out of
a special mountain form of bamboo, and are generally 8 to 10 inches
long and about 1 inch wide. One edge is left straight for its whole
length, and the other is cut away near the end, very much as we cut
away one side of a quill pen, so as to produce a sharp point. The
side edge which is used for cutting is the one which is not cut away
at the end; and when it gets blunt it is renewed by simply peeling
off a length of fibre, thus producing a new edge, bevelled inwards
towards the concave side of the implement, and making a hard and
very sharp fresh cutting edge. The point can of course be sharpened
at any time in the obvious way.
Pig-bone implements (Plate 51, Fig. 2). These are the implements
which are often used as forks, but they have straight edges also
with which they are used as scraping knives, and they are utilised
for many other purposes. The implement, which is, I think, similar
to what is commonly found in Mekeo and on the coast, is made out of
the leg-bone of a pig, and is generally from 5 to 8 inches long. One
side of the bone is ground away, so as to make the implement flattish
in section, one side (the outside unground part of the bone) being
somewhat convex, and the other (where the bone has been ground away)
being rather concave. Some of the joint end of the bone is left to
serve as a handle; and from this the bone is made to narrow down to
a blunt, rather flattish and rounded point, somewhat like that of
a pointed paper-cutter. The side edge is used for scraping, and the
point for sticking into things.
Smoking pipes are in the ordinary well-known form of Mekeo and the
coast, being made of sections of bamboo stem in which the natural
intersecting node near the mouthpiece end is bored and the node at the
other end is left closed, and between these two nodes, near to the
closed one, is a flute-like hole, in which is placed the cigarette
of tobacco wrapped up in a leaf. They are, however, generally not
ornamented; or, if they are so, it is merely in a simple geometric
pattern of straight lines. I obtained one pipe (Plate 51, Fig. 1) of
an unusual type, being much smaller than is usual. A special feature
of this pipe is its decoration, which includes groups of concentric
circles. This is the only example of a curved line which I ever met
with among the Mafulu villages, and it is probable that it had not
been made there.
Boring drills (Plate 51, Fig. 4) are also similar to those of Mekeo
and the coast, except that there the fly-wheel is, I think, usually
a horizontal circular disc, through the centre of which the upright
shaft of the implement passes, whereas in the Mafulu boring instrument
the fly-wheel, through which the shaft passes, is a rudely cut flat
horizontal piece of wood about 9 or 10 inches long, 2 inches broad,
and half an inch or less thick, and also that in Mafulu the native
point, made out of a pointed fragment of the stone used for making
club-heads, adze blades and cloth-beaters, is not generally replaced
by a European iron point, as is so commonly the case in Mekeo and
near the coast. These drills are used for boring dogs' teeth and
shells and other similar hard-substanced things, but are useless
for boring articles of wood or other soft substances, in which the
roughly formed point would stick. [51]
Fire-making. This is a question of process, rather than of implement,
but may be dealt with here. To produce fire, the Mafulu native
takes two pieces of very dry and inflammable wood, one larger than
the other, and some dry bark cloth fluff. He then holds the smaller
piece of wood and the fluff together, and rubs them on the larger
piece of wood. After four or five minutes the fluff catches fire,
without bursting into actual flame, upon which the native continues the
rubbing process, blowing gently upon the fluff, until the two pieces
of wood begin to smoulder, and can then be blown into a sufficient
flame for lighting a fire.
Carrying bags. These are all made of network. I shall say something
about the mode of netting and colouring them hereafter, and will here
only deal with the bags and their use. They are of various sizes,
(1) There are the large bags used by women for carrying heavy objects,
such as firewood, vegetables and fruit, which they bring back to
the village on their return in the afternoon from the gardens and
bush. These bags are carried in the usual way, the band over the
opening of the bag being passed across the front of the head above the
forehead, and the bag hanging over the back behind. They are curved
in shape, the ends of the bag being at both its top and bottom edges
higher than are the centres of those edges, so that, when a bag is
laid out flat, its top line is a concave one and its bottom line is a
convex one. The network at the two ends of the top line is continued
into the loop band by means of which the bag is carried. The usual
dimensions of one of these bags, as it lies flat and unstretched
on a table (the measurements being made along the curved lines)
are as follows--top line about 2 feet, bottom line about 3 feet,
and side lines about 18 inches. But when filled with vegetables,
firewood, etc., they expand considerably, especially those made of
"Mafulu network," of which I shall speak hereafter. These bags are
uncoloured. (2) There are similar, but somewhat smaller, bags, in
which the women carry lighter things, and which in particular they
use for carrying their babies. They frequently carry this bag and
the larger one together; and you will often see a woman with a big
bag heavily laden with vegetables or firewood or both, and another
smaller bag (perhaps also slung behind over the top of the big one,
or hanging from her head at her side, or over her breast), which
contains her baby, apparently rolled up into a ball. These bags also
are uncoloured. (3) There are other bags, similar perhaps in size to
No. 2, used for visiting and at feasts, dances and similar occasions,
and also sometimes used for carrying babies. The top line of one of
these is generally about 2 feet long, the bottom line a trifle longer,
and the side lines about 1 foot. These are coloured in decorative
patterns. (4) There are small bags of various sizes carried by men
slung over their shoulders or arms, and used to hold their betel-nut,
pepper and tobacco and various little implements and utensils of
daily life. These are sometimes uncoloured and sometimes coloured. (5)
There are the very small charm bags, only about 2 inches or a trifle
more square, which are used by both men and women (I think only the
married ones) for carrying charms, and are worn hanging like lockets
from the neck. They are sometimes coloured.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 | 5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23