LIFE IN NEW GUINEA

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 319, 5 October 1908, Page 3

LIFE IN NEW GUINEA

THE PAPUAN WOMAN-AND HER' WAYS. ■ Terrible stories have been told of tho degradation, of women in' somo of the Pacific Islands; of/the uppishnoss'of tho men, and , the cruelty .'to. which thej; subject their feminine folk. : There arc Pacific .Islands were the - poor down-trodden women, in terror of their / lives, do all the work, while-the . men lounge and.loaf, and there are.in the South Pacific three islands where .tho hardest-working woman may not liopo to.earn as much as a man, and; where the husband call sell tlie home without even consulting his wife. In these respects at.least the women, of New Zealand may look with envy at their New ' Guinea Bisters, who enjoy in the community a .posif. tioii <or equality, with the men that is not known in many, other places. ■ * ■ ' Mrs. Bromilow, who, with her husband, has lived in New Guinea for, seventeen years, told 1 ''Dominica" many tilings of' interest about, the people there,-at the time time, emphasising the fact' that the manners and customs of the people among whom they"lived were very different from tho customs of tribes who lived only a short distance away, for tho New-Guinea peoples are so disintegrated that thox'havo any- variety of laws and codes' of etiquette, and what is true .- of. one set may.be quite untrue of:another. ■ Y/omen's Acknowledged Rights. - 'Before going,/ to ; the- island, '. they had selected as their. homej Mrs. Bromilow was asked to let'-'tho head of: the mission know whether thero. wore any, openings' for women ■workers.there, arid she found,the nativ.e women taking such, a prominent jpa.rt in-affairs that V she" applied straight away, for woiuen helpers, Who wore sent about a .year later. The women have equal rights with the-men in tho; buying and. selling of land, the . men share with them'.-the of ]' the villages,I arid tho - children •' . belong - entirely,'; to the Mother. The. father is considered ;to have no rights over them at/all,: and ho cannot Wen leave his- property' to' them. "A child inherits his . mother's . property; but .his father's land gots to' his .-nephews. And the wife, rules; the' 'yams. - This . sentence' has a' deliriously - tyrannical/sound ; about it,, and tyrannical the. woman- may be, for if her husband does''hot' please may refuse. ; to let him have any food until she has got: byer what she.'probably calls anger, and "he call temper, just ; as in - more,-civilised coiii-, infinities.'- The possession -of power has not tended to the blevatipn of the women's mora) , character, 'a 'regrettable'; fact, but' as..'NewGuinea is so ve,ry far from Hyde Park this assertion is. not likely to. injure the prospects of the English,'suffragettes. • . Domestic Felicity. . ■ ■'. Mrs. .Bromilow; found the women loss kind than the men, and "so far from! trying to make peace, they used'in the old days to egg on the .men to war,-and if their husbands returned'unsuccessful .from x'tribal,.war they were greeted With taunts and je'ers by the women, fwho would refuse to sweep'tho: vil- . lages or cook the yams by their 1 favourite rocipes, and in short made their homes so un- ! comfortable that in desperation:- tho men would/'sally -forth and ■ hurl themselves once more.rlupbn the foe. This is changed. With the "advent of Christianity has come a more; peaceable'/disposition, and now -it is ack'now-' ledged by-the Government'that the women help materially to maintain peace. The women are." supposed to take great' care-'of the yams'. > They gather' them together and store them- from one season to anothor, and bo prfceious are these .yams that if a woman treats; them carelessely or distributes them ■ ;too lavishly among her visitors her husband may make that ground for divorce. These - people,/far from living) the simple life,'have Bomotimes a multiplicity of homes. A nian has | his house in his own village, and his '..wife has her own in her village, and if he has' more than:,ono wife, then he. -has so many .more' homos, and the 'difficulties, that in other countries beset the man who has two wives are obviated here .by the fact that, his wives livo'iin different -villages, and do ". not disturb - each other.. ' Child Life-In-Heathendom. 7 , The first. thing Mrs, 'Bromilow tried,:-to'' teach the women was how to sew, and very ' she found theni. '. They already ' had'' needles; made of. fish-bones, and they • used-to seW'garments of'leaves for tho men > and, make'sun-blinds in. the 'same way, so that they, were ready for the new knowledge and very"quickly became expert.- The day schools that were opened when the new htilpefs- camo were not so popular, and the' mothers used to object to sending their children since, they 'received no pay for doing bo. That was years ago, and now the kinder-' ■ garten : is beginning to make its way. The New Guinea children have happy lives, playing about on the beach, swimming or/ playing with their little . boats, and amusing themsblves with "various games. • There was always, a dark background to their minds where lurked a'fear of the -witches and wizards who ,were so real a source of terror even to'the-adults, but in the sunshine this did not trouble tliem. They were wild little! . things," though with training they became' gentle "and affectionate. The child, as such,is not treasured in New Guinea,' If it "is an attractive. child then it has a good timo, . but'its personality is allowed to count overmuch. Infanticide used to'be practised to a ; great extent, and even jiow the missionaries and their helpers keep a careful watch le.st tho parents, who would not. now'care to. kill a child outright, .should put it away somewhere to die-of neglect. "Rescuing a Baby. , : ' It is a,thrilling story that Mrs. Bromilow tells of the-first occasion when she Was brought-face to face with their terrible cus-'. torn of burying a . tiny baby alive with; its. dead mother, and very- graphically she can tell the story of the circular open grave where the dead woman was seated in' her death chair, the surrounding crowd; of' women! wailing the death wail with voices rising higher and higher, till they -almost shrieked, of tiny baby handed over the heads of tho crowd, to be bound alive to its mother's breast, and buried with-her,-and of her own protest, a protest that seemed unavailing agaiiist the steady wailing of the wonjeri; -then how the baby was handed back again' to the outskirts of the ■ crowd arid taken up to a hut to'be carefully starved by witches.. Mrs. Bromilow at last,had to take- the baby to the mission house, where it was fed oil tinned milk, to 'thd extreme, astonishment of the native women,' who never ceased to wonder. how the milk got , into the tin. It is a fine story, and all these years .after one: can realise how the saving of .thai baby opened up the way for work anion;; the 'women as nothing else could possibly have done. One ' thing 'that , Mrs. Bromilow- says is Worth special .'record in view of, the years she has spent among such people. " With all my experience I firmly believe that there is a spark of the divine in every man,- even the very lowest." /At a Chinese wedding, the beggar ciiief i" ahvays invited. He brings a plate, and - begs from ill the guests, but in return all other mendicants from the marriage feast. The beggar chief of a big Chinese city-makes as miich as £1000 a year, and v. out of this he pays the common or street i beggars. '