Those who are familiar with the postage-stamp of British New Guinea must, no doubt, have often wondered what manner of strange craft is depicted thereon. The stamp, as will be seen from the accompanying illustration, bears the representation of a boat, or rather a raft, carrying two gigantic sails resembling the wings of some weird bird, and the whole appearance of the vessel is one that arouses curiosity. This is the _lakatoi_, the remarkable trading vessel of the hereditary potters of Hanuabada, a little village not far from Port Moresby. The hamlet, with its neighbour, Elevada, is built partly on land and partly on piles in the water; but while the land part of Hanuabada stands on the mainland, that part of Elevada which is not aquatic is founded on an island. The inhabitants belong to the Motu tribe, and their numbers do not exceed 800. Their long grass-thatched huts rise from sixteen to twenty feet above land or water, and each has its little landing-stage on a lower tier. The main poles supporting these structures are of rough-hewn tree trunks driven down into the soft sand. At a height of from five to six feet above the water the natural forks of the main poles are retained, and across these logs are laid, forming a rude platform. Ladders of very irregular construction give access almost at haphazard from stage to stage. Looking through the village below the houses, the eye encounters a perfect forest of poles, and between the dwellings in this queer Venice of the East run little waterways just wide enough to let a canoe pass along without grazing its outriggers. The houses themselves each contain only one living apartment. In and out among the houses ply the dug-out canoes, and a very charming feature of the village is its crowd of children, playing with toy _lakatois_. The smallest of these toy craft are made of a section of bamboo ballasted with stones, with a sail of the same shape as that of the great rafts used by the grown-up people. The bigger children, scorning the bamboo vessels, have a larger kind, in which the canoes are real little dug-outs. These youngsters are wonderful swimmers, and as they conduct their little regattas they jump about in the water, swimming and diving fearlessly, and enjoying the merriest possible time. The people of Hanuabada are an agreeable and rather comely race. They are typical south-east coast natives, with shock heads of black wiry hair. The women, who carry on the characteristic industry of the place, the work in earthenware, are lithe picturesque figures in their long _ramis_ or kilts of grass. It is a curious fact that, although the Hanuabada and Elevada people live actually on waters that teem with fish, they are poor fishermen, being, in fact, too lazy to follow that craft. They are accordingly helped in this industry by the Hula people, whose fishing fleet presents at night one of the most weirdly picturesque sights in Papua. Of this I have more to say in a later chapter.