Missions -- New Guinea; New Guinea -- Description and travel
8_th_.--We had six hours' good walking, and are now encamped under the
shade of Vetura. The country from Epakari to here is very ridgy, and,
after leaving the ridges of Epakari, very barren. Coming suddenly on a
large party of men, women, and children returning from a dance, they were
so frightened when we called out, _Naimo_! that they set off, kits,
spears, and drums, and no fine words would bring them back. We have
seven natives with us; the old chief says he must see us safe to
Keninumu. We passed a fine village--Umiakurape--on a ridge west of
Karikatana; the chiefs name is Vaniakoeta. It would make a splendid
station. The high ridge at the back of Epakari, along which we came, is
1000 feet high, and from it we saw Fisherman's Island, Redscar Bay,
Bootless Inlet, and the whole coast east to Round Head.
9_th_.--Arrived at Keninumu at half-past ten a.m. Found all well. The
natives are constantly on the look-out for the Tabori attack on
Munikahila. We hear the Munikahila natives have been stealing from
Goldie.
14_th_.--Since our return we have been house-building, but are getting on
very slowly. I fear we are six weeks too late for the Kupele district,
and shall have to leave it for another season. It would be awkward to
get in and not get back until the end of the wet season. I find our
friend the chief, Poroko, has had two wives; one he killed lately. She
was in the plantation, and some young fellows coming along, she sat down
with them to have a smoke and get the news; Poroko heard of it, and on
her coming home in the evening he killed her. A woman at Favelle said,
"Oh, the Koiari man thinks nothing of killing his wife." The word for
"sneeze" in Koiari is _akiso_. When they are leaving for a journey or
going for the night they call out _kiso_, and often from their houses
they shout their good-night to us, _kiso_. There is a woman in deep
mourning for her daughter. She has hanging round her neck all the
ornaments once the property of the deceased, and along with them the
jawbone. The headless body she visits occasionally, and rubs herself all
over with the juice from it!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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