STRANGE NEW GUINEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 72, 26 March 1921, Page 17

STRANGE NEW GUINEA.

CROCODILES AND CANNIBALS.! WHERE TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION. j a Imok rij' entrancing interest is "Some Kxperiences iif a Nov. liutnea Resident. Magi.-trate." thr personal ;md m.'M thrilling advenburer- of Captain I. A. W. Monrkion, FR.C-.5., written by LiniwSf. 1' > a plain tale and a tnip nno. and ir- ?iranL-rr than fiction, .-ays the ")>aily Mail." It i- n riot of real adventure. an orgy of crocodile* and cannibals, ot hcautiful < ■ >r;i 1 inland.-, of strange men and stranger boasts-, and human flowers, an<i hair-rii>injr happenings, all of vhi.ii took plare in those far-distant possessions of the British Empire north of the coast of Queensland. Here is β-i account of a wonderful family of fishing rats encountered in the -romantic Trobriand off New Uuinea. "Wγ had landed and camped for the night on a --mall coral island surrounded hv submerged ooral boulders and, but li>r » few stunted trees, bare of all vegetation. "While sitting quietly there T noticed some rat.- goin.2 down to the edge of the reef —limk. hungry-looking brutes they ivere. with pink, naked tails. I stopped on the point of throwing lumps of coral at them, out o! curiosity to see what the vermin meant to do at the sea. "'Rat after rat picked a flattish lump of coral, squatted on the edge and dangled his tail in the water; suddenly unc rat save a violent leap of about a yard, and as he landed 1 saw a crat> cliniing to his tail. "Turning round, the rat grabbed the crab and devoured it. and then returned to his stone: tlie while the other rats were repeating the same performance. What on earth those rats did for fresh water, though. 1 don't know, as there vas none on the island that I could * • » There are thrilling tale? of crocodiles, their appetite and their cunning, and onein particular v.ho inhabited a deep pool in a .-mall stream at Wanigela, in Colliiii'wood Bay. Things came to such a that natives and cattle disappeared ?<> rapidly that at last the people comjiained that they did not think much of a Government which could not rid thrtn of such a pest. At last the Resilient Magistrate was induced to take extreme measures. "I became really annoyed with the crocodile. 'Kill a pig. a. fat pig, and let it rro roti-en,' I advised the villagers, 'then I will come and deal with the brute.' "I went to Wanigela in about a week's time: the pig we took with us was really high by then, and a. choice morsel for a crocodile. On to that pig's corpse I tied about a pound of dynamite, with a ;ard of fuse attached: then puling the whaler into the middle of the hole the bean was supposed to inhabit, I lit the fuse and chucked the pig over the side. "1 had fixed a five-minute fuse, time sufficient. I thought, for the crocodile to discover the delicious morsel we had him: soon came the explosion, and a few seconds later out crawled on to the sandbank an enormous old crocodile, only to be greeted with a veritable hail of bullets, spears, and curses, whereupon he flopped back once more into his uncomfortable domicile. 'I don't think he will trouble you again.' I told the Wanigela people, and went off home." 1-rom crocodiles -we come to cannibals. On the shores of the Agaiembu .Lake complaints were made by the 'Kotu tribe. "The Notu, who were a set of murdering blackgcards themselves and a curse to the coast, told mc that they had ■hjtberto been on most friendly terms •with the Dobudura, but that lately the latter tribe 'iiad been raiding them, killing by torture any people they captured. ""'Wβ don't mind Sghting, , said the iNotu, 'and we don't mind' being killed and eaten, for that is the lot of men; but we do object to 'hay-ing our arms ripped up and being tied to posts or trees by our sinews and having meat chopped off us until we die.' " The "Resident," with his Kaili Kaili ifa'ithful carriers) sets off to chasten the Dobudura. Alter a march inland at dawn the ■party emerges on to a grassy plain and sights one of the Dobudura villages. "1 iiey at once gave tongue to a prolonged blood-ccrdling war cry, "Oooogh! Aarrl* "In the centre of the village was a platform about four feet high stacked with skulls, some quit* fresh, others with flesh adhering to them. " 'Ours,' said the Notu. 'See that hole in the side of each skull? That is where they scraps out the. fresh brains!'" The TJoTrudura retire and t-here follow? the pursuit through the inky darkness with the cannibals, invisible, silent, in a circle around them —"a thin invisible net which always gave when pressed, only to olose again when we relaxed our pressure." Finally the Doaudwa are overcome and their capital village burned. "'During the chase we entered village after village. 'Each had the same platform of skulls, some years old, come days; vhtle in some villages an additional decoration in the form of Topes bung with human jawbones was provide,! The skulls were all those of people killed and eaten. . . ."' The peopie 'known as sorcerers are a curse to the imaginative and superstitious natives. "1 remember once an epidemic of m«a.--its breaking out at Paiwa, on Cape \ "gel, and the cheerful sorcerers persuaded the people that it would continue until a live man was cut open by them, which was accordingly done. On another orcas-ion. at the back of Collinewood Bay, Oi'lri'hs, who was then my Assistant resident Magistrate, heard of a case where they -hoved lawyer vines, with thorns (like fish hooks) down the throats of some of the people and then tore them up again."' The .Resident Magistrate, was always having , trouble over the domestic diiliciil'irs of cannibal.-. At .Muxawa this situation required liU immediate attention: "A tribe named the Mokoru, lying to the north of Cape Nelson, captured jind ate a number of runaway Mambare carriers: they calmly told mc that they would do the same to the police if I interfered with them, but added that I myself was so repulsively coloured that they would not dream of eating mc, but would feed mc to the pigs instead! " <iu r women police are not such a new institution ac one would imagine. "in the northern division, in later ypars. I had in one instance a woman village constable. She had a very masterful personality, and had ruled her

village before the advent of the Government. "&he did splendid work, and only once gave mc trouble, and that was when she summarily divorced her husband; be was rather glad tlian otherwise, as the position of consort to the official lady was not altogether a bed of roses. But then she picked out a fine-looking younj! man of her village, about ten years younger then herself, and ordered him to marry her. "lie was struck with consternation at the prospect and bolted for an adjoining village; she pursued hrm, and ran him in upon the charge of disobeying the village constable. Two other village constables near by were scandalised at the' affair; they ran in the pair and brought them before mc, when, an answer to my inquiries, the lady official stated her grievance. "•'Why won't you marry her?' I asked the man. "It seems the best way to settle the matter.' "'l'd sooner go to gaol," he said briefly. ' " 'Well, I am blessed if I see any way out of it,' I said; "if you return to your village, I believe she will marry you sooner'or later. Wanting to marry you is not a crime.' '" 'Can I enlist in the Armed Constabulary?' he "I should be safe there.' "'Yes, that will be the best; I'll send you to Cape Nelson.' "'Are you not going to make him marry mcV asked the redowbtabl-e dame. T shook my head. "Then I suppose I'll have to take so-and-so back again,' she remarked, naming her recently divorced husband—which, 1 may mention, she finally did." * • •* While, one of the methods c'f eornmvt. ting suicide by the New Guinea natives is to climb a cocoamit tree and then J drop head-.first to the ground, their j ideas of mourning tor departed relatives are equally strange. , "At this first parade, after my return to Mekeo, wh-en I was inspecting the men I found one of them all gashed about the face and body. 'What have you been i;p to;' I asked; 'more pinca.pples?" "He grinned sheepishly, and explained that while I was away hk grandfather lad died, and so he had cut himself all over with broken glass as a sign of mourning. "Thp signs of mourning were almost as varied as the tr'bes themselves. The Goodenougti Islandors had a horrid ha-bit of cutting off their finger joints with bits of obsidian —i.e., volcanic glass —until, after a sickly season, the hands of some of the men were merely bleeding stumps. The Stiaus cut down the coconut trees belonging to the deceased, until sir William MacGregor passed a regulation forbidding it: and the Kaili Kaili used to hurt theTnselves face forward into the =ea, and inhale salt water until they nearly burst their lungs."