Two Years Among New Guinea Cannibals: A Naturalist's Sojourn Among the Aborigines of Unexplored New GuineaPratt, A. E. (Antwerp Edgar)
History
Two Years Among New Guinea Cannibals: A Naturalist's Sojourn Among the Aborigines of Unexplored New Guinea
Pratt, A. E. (Antwerp Edgar)
Ethnology -- New Guinea; Natural history -- New Guinea; New Guinea -- Description and travel
When the women go out to the garden, or when they aid in heavy transport
service, as in the case of my expedition, the baby always accompanies
them, and I counted at least six different ways of carrying the infant.
1. In the net-bag, slung behind, and supported by the band passed across
the mothers forehead; to save abrasion a leaf was placed between the
forehead and the knot made by tying the two ends of the bag together.
Among many of the women I noted a patch of white hair, just at the point
where the knot had pressed. 2. The child on the top of the load,
supported by the mother’s left arm. This, of course, refers to the time
when they were carrying for us, and had a particularly heavy burden. 3.
Astride of one shoulder; this was practised by the men, and the infant
was so placed as to face the side of his father’s head. 4. Also a man’s
method, pick-a-back, with the little legs round the father’s neck. 5.
The child with the arms clasped round the father’s neck and no other
support at all. 6. Similar to the last, except that the child in this
instance was carried by the mother, who, being blessed with an
exceptional spread of “Rami” behind, could allow the little one’s feet
to rest comfortably on that.
In the village communities on the hills there was no very regular
observance of meal times. They ate when they wanted to, but on the coast
a meal was taken in the morning, in the afternoon, in the early evening,
and sometimes at night. The cooking was done by the women in the round
earthenware pots mentioned in the description of the Hanuabada potters.
In point of dress and appearance the mountain people differ widely from
those of the coast. The place of the “Rami” is taken by the cheebee, or
perineal band, a simpler garment than even the fig-leaf. They are a
shorter people, with better developed legs than the coast natives, which
is no doubt owing to the extraordinary exercise imposed on the limbs by
the difficulties of the ground.
The women wear fewer adornments than the men, their principal ornaments
being the dogs’ teeth necklace and armlet, and on the breast a pearl
shell, ground with a stone night and day for three weeks until the outer
shell is gone and the mother-of-pearl is left bare and polished. They
tie up their hair with bark so that the hair itself can hardly be seen,
and sometimes they plait it up into small tails. They carry the
customary bag of small odds and ends, and their weapons are distinctly
formidable. These consist of the spear and club only. The spear is
pointed and jagged, and is made of very hard redwood; the club has a
heavy stone top, elaborately hewn into sharp bosses. The Dinawa people
do not know how to make these clubs, which are manufactured in the
Keakama district, and their presence in the hills proves that there is
some system of commercial distribution.
[Illustration:
1.—A STONE-HEADED CLUB.
2.—VARIOUS FORMS OF THE BAU-BAU, OR TOBACCO PIPE, SHOWING DIFFERENT
KINDS OF ORNAMENTATION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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