PAPUAN NATIVES

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 December 1929, Page 12

PAPUAN NATIVES

FIRST SIGNS OF WRITING. CANBERRA, November 26. Investigations of recent murders in Papua have led to the discovery of what is believed to be the first step towards a system of writing among the natives of the territory. Interesting facts regarding the discovery are contained in a report supplied to the Prime Minister (Mr. Scullin) by the Lieutenant-Governor of Papua (Sir Hubert Murray). Sir Hubert Murray’s report states that Serawaka, a native of the village of Dotata, on the Turama River, reported at the Kikori Station that he had been away from Dotata for four days, and that on retiirn he had found that two women and two girls of his household had been decapitated, and his two boys had disappeared. A Government official (Mr. Austen) and police set out in pursuit of the murderers, and after travelling for several days, came across sticks and leaves arranged in a peculiar fashion. Serawaka, the native, interpreted this as a message. Two of the sticks represented two sago adzes of married women. A bow with small arrows gave the idea of a small boy’s toy bow. Two smaller sticks were the sago adzes' of the two girls, and a small bow ahd arrow, representing a small boy’s toy how. Calamus leaves on the sticks were the mark of the man who made it. Tbps. according to Mr. Austen, the whole message read: . “We, the Oberi, have killed two women and two girls. The two small boys are with us, and alive. Come if you dare.” Mr. Austen could not ascertain why the small boys should be alive, except that it had something to do with the way the arrows were tied to the bows. He also said that neither the Oberi nor the Kasers killed small children. The message, Mr. Austen states, w’as probably meant to read that the arrow's being tied to the bows had not been fired. “The incident,” Sir Hubert Murray, said, “seems to me to be of interest, as it indicates a first step towards a system of writing. lam not aware of any similar instance of pictography in Papua.”