WINGED EXPLORERS OF PAPUA

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 23, 28 January 1939, Page 20 (Supplement)

WINGED EXPLORERS OF PAPUA

♦ -—— ♦ "Wp hfjiled nur hilly n.s ihiiiil and had breakfast. and it. did nut. take many «iytin tn ill<ll■<•<> tin- natives to j"in us. It wii* great. I tell yon, ti> watch their e\pressinns as they ate the -t Til lliri- fund. Alter it W(I - nWV the boss 111,111 niilde II speech of thanks. Me -<| k• k<■ -lowly nn<l cere- ; iii<• 111<»11-»Iy. am! I made nut a I'oly- , ne.-iiin word here iiihl there. and t lie i di"'t ' >r. ]i - r»»ii iii jr intently, #l«« lee iy M i -»i us' > ijie w nrds—lie told me 11f terw ii id < they uere Malay, and he en n< ■11 id ed this mountain pcuple were a fill-inn n[ the Malay and I'nlvnesian element 4, it i i scaiecly a trace nf the Me l.i ne«ia n. Then the native-' watched U" pack up and "tore nur j l>e Inlig i ill' s ill the machine. When they saw us apparently ahniit tn leave . them they gathered aHuit lis. and by : [mlite ami emphatic signs the chief gave 11 ■» tn under-Mild lie wished u«* j tn accompany him. | "'All right. nld man.' said thei doctor, 'hut ve're tint y«• ini; tn ; tramp it. All aboard' and before j the amazed kiinnkiH knew what we were ahnut U[> we went, taking the i air like a bird. We did a stunt or j two round their head*. Inw enough to enjoy the expressions r> n their hrowti faces; then we mnde signs to them to go on and we would keep lip with j tliem. Sn up the mysterious valley we went, flying slowly, the natives run- I ninjr to keep up with us; tircles* fel- j lows thev seemed, keeping tip a I steady trot. j The Wonderful Mountain Town. j "We flew over a narrow belt of tall forest that made a screen for th.; upper valley, and then the doetor yelled, 'There it is! There it is! We've found it, my boy, we've found it!' "[ was steering the ship and it took me all my time, for nasty little williwaws of wind came down the gullies on either side, and she needed as delicate handling as an overmasted schooner in a strong breeze. Sure enough there was a big village right ahead. It was, ft town, and a stone town at that! We came gently to the ground in front of a tall palisade of tree trunk* set on end along the top of a high bank, made our machine secure and waited for our new friends. "By this time the stockade wa« alive with natives, for all the world like a tribe of Polynesians, the dignified natives of some Samoan village. We judged that our aeroplane would be perfectly safe, so, taking our weapons and a good supply of cartridges, and Ailing our pockets with knives and tobacco and other small article* that we thought the native# would like, we followed our friend* through the narrow gate in the • tockade. "I thought the doetor would have jumped out of his skin with delight when we crossed a wide ditch with rrnning water by a log bridge, and

By --- James Cowan. .]

! "|M'iipd out the kanaka town. It | . was a village of stone houses. flatj ri »nted affairs built of blocks of dark I - ley rock. There were large thatched J hut.-, ton. nf the ordinary native sort. j but there were many of those stone' lloi|-e-. aith 11 ■11 "II .1 -"It of plateau. | »ith the I'.ii'ky side nf a mountain I ri-ing at the iiaek. Wr went on by a rnw of -1 eps to the I i 11. —-1 stnne hnii-e of them all. iiirvd oil the 1 front, with beautiful (lowering trees '.'rowing about it. I ; The Wise Man of the Stone Carvers. j '**1 lie re. ill front of the l|i 111 —e. -.11 I an old. ohl man. a -rev my »t ica I -look ■ ' ing ancient chap with a long white 1 beard. (11l hi* brow, just above and ] between hi- evcr>. was a curious blue I tattoo design. Ilir. long beard fell to ! 11 if- wai«-t: he ua,. ha re except fur a i long kilt of t a pa. "On another plaited mat near him sat, a yoling girl, whom 1 judged to he 'his, daughter, and from that day t«> | this | have never set eyes <>n a more beautiful Woman. Like the old man I and all the other people, she was ' hare to the waist: she wore, as I | remember, some curioiit-ly patterned | skirt of tapa. or tree hark cloth. She had broad metal armlets, and in her

A Story Of The Great Dark Island «• ——

♦ — « ears were heavy ear-rinn;* of a barbaric shape. The armlets and earrings were, I found later, pure gold, but I scarcely liclievp<l my eyes when I first saw them on that strangely lovely i:jr 1 in the very heart of the • ireat Black I-laml. Around her neck h 1111 jr a loipj- shivery-slimy kind of jewel on a chain of rouuhlv coiitrived L'old links; it lay on her breast j like some sacred witchv talir-man. I "Itnt the most strange part of it j all was the calm way this old chief and tin- beautiful youtiL' chief t a iness received u». We fa>iil later that she was hi- L'ta nddaiiuhtcr. ami that she wan 1 ><• illlt trained a>s a priestess to take his place a* tlie sacred guardian ami w itch-woma n'of the trilie. They -at there as if they had heen inspecting u'UCfts, and they bowed to us in a solemn, dignified way. gravely -milium and -peaking low am] uncommonly sweetly. in a ton-ue that seemed softer than that of our escort. They brought us mats, like our llax ones, to re-t oil. and I and drink j ill ciirioiifi pottery ware. different j from that of the coa»t people-, and then lie rc-ted while our guides told | ii«s the wonderful story of how they found lis. "Will you believe it. Mr. Me ( ulliim." said the Schooner Man. a* he refreshed his dry throttle to iise the eni'incer"- technical phrase "will you lie lie \ e it. hut t hose people had been expecting us for days before that? There hail been a dream, or I a prophecy, or something, about -trance white men comitiL' from afar.

who would not come on foot lik» ordinary men, but like gode! That we learned later, after we had caught the drift of their talk. That va« why we were welcomed and kindly treated. "But the strangest thing yet wa« to come. The doctor that very evening was taken to the sacred places of ilie tril>e; me they left to the village to he entertained by the people. The iinctor was i>eside himself with jov when he came back with a notebook full of measurements and sketches; a nil next morning t lie two of us were off with tlie camera, no one saying ii* nay and the old priest-chief guiding u~. and standing gravely by while we photographed and measured and noted down. The Sculptors of Mystery Town. '"There was a great museum of those statues. just like tlie big scorn-ful-looking stone fellows on the crater slopes of Faster Island. Some were half-overgrown with bush and creepers, some were clear of all growth and stood out bold and majestic- — looking down on the village below. The big black mountain rose jll~r behind them, and they had no doubt been <|uarried out of it. ages ago. To some of tlicm there was a trodden path, and little fences of | stakes stood about their linn-fixed I feet, and in front of one huge image | there was a stone dish of what j -eeined to lie an offering or sacrifice. The largest curving—the head and trunk were i|iiite Kgvpt ian-like -was I should giie-s. :{ll feet high, and it had a curious kind of glittering shell, as big as a dinner-plate, set in each eve hollow. The thing seemed to follow vim with its enormous eves; and I own it gave me a sea lp-ra ising sensation when I went up there one moonlight night with the doctor. (To he con lin I/I 'I }