PICTURESQUE PAPUA.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17395, 4 March 1922, Page 8

PICTURESQUE PAPUA.

Captain Frank Hurley recently returned to Sydney from a tour of Papua and the Torres "Islands, lasting twelve months. • ;

j "I made Thursday Island my, beginning point," said Captain 'liurley. "From there I sailed to the little known islands of the Torres Straits. . These islands are Arcadian, possessing wonderr ful tropical scenery, and are inhabited by a people who are amiable, adaptable, and, strangest of all, strictly honest. I showed them photographs of Ross Smith's Vimy aeroplane, and explained its use. Two days later I was, invited to an dance. The dancers went through birdlike evolutions, and, more wonderful still, each one was crowned with a crude but faithful model of a Vimy." Captain Hurley afterwards returned to Thursday Islamd to film the pearling industry. During his stay, two magnificent pearls were obtained.. He then made a circuit of the Papuan coast, and made many expeditions into the interior. H© found that the wildest races were thoeo inhabiting the Papuan Gulf, where cannibalism. was prevented only by the strictest Government scrutiny. Captain Hurley added that when a man of this tribe died, a shield depicting his features was carved. "This shield," he said, "is called 'gope,' and is hung in the 'dubu,' the belief being that the spirit of the deceased will inhabit it. From the 'gope' are suspended the skulls of the enemies he has killed during his lifetime, so that their spirits may wait on his in the under-world." I