NEW GUINEA CUSTOMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20307, 15 July 1929, Page 8

NEW GUINEA CUSTOMS.

PRESERVATION OF HEADS,

ART OF RESTORATION.

A SCIENTIST'S SPECIMENS. PRESENTATION TO MUSEUM. Two smoke-dried human heads, male and female, from tho Sepik River district of Northern New Guinea, arc being presented to the, Auckland Museum by Mr. W. R. McGregor, of the Auckland University College, who recently returned from an extensive tour i:i that, territory and (ho Bismarck Archipelago. The heads are included in a collection of skulls, and were removed from the mandated country by tho courtesy of the Administrator, Brigadier-General Evan A. Wisdom, solely 111 the interests of science. Traffic in such specimens as "curios" is strictly forbidden

"Throughout New Guinea and the smaller islands of Melanesia," said Mr. McGregor yesterday, "human heads and skulls prepared in one way or another are frequently important objets d'art in tho native villages. A variety of customs brings about their accumulation. Throughout Melanesia, and especially on (he mainland of New Guinea, head-hunting was formerly very extensively practised. In a great many parts of New Guinea this i:j still the case to-day, but measures for its suppression are taken wherever control by the Commonwealth, which holds the mandate, is established. Ju actual fact, however, the controlled areas arc infinitesimal compared with the uncontrolled, iu which 'wild' natives live in prinutivo conditions and savage customs prevail. Raiding Parties of Youths"ln many parts of New Guinea elaborate initiation ceremonies precede the attainment of manhood. These are accompanied in many instances by practices which to tho civilised mind are revoltingly cruel. As a prerequisite the youth must secure a certain number of skulls taken from enemies of his tribe. As often as not a small band of youths form a raiding party, five or six strong, which descends upon some isolated or ill-pro-tected village, from which tho gruesome relics are obtained. These are duly added to the tribal collection, which is usually stored in a building of large size, a sort of men's clubhouse, having special architectural features of its own. "In many parts of the territory the dead are cremated, the associated ceremonial differing in different places. Other tribes, again, place the bodies of the deceased in trees or upon special platforms, the head being removed after decomposition has proceeded for a- time. In some localities the skull is simply cleaned and placed in a vdlago shrine. No woman may look upon it. The penalty for breach of this law is death. Artistic Restorations. "In other cases, especially when chiefs or other important persons are concerned, tho skulls are elaborately restored. Smokedrying results in the partial preservation of the. features and hair. The skilful ;;sa of clay restores tho features to some semblance of tho human countenance. Cowrie shells replace tho eyes. Some tribes havo brought tho restoration of skulls to a fine art. For instance, in certain limited localities cf the Solomon Islands, in former times, beautiful restorations of the features, possessing high artistic merit, were made by the use of a plastic material derived from tho large seed of a treo (parinarium laurinum) —a vegetable putty still largely used in Melanesia as a filling material for cracks in canoes. Only certain old men possessed the secret, and it is now a lost art. In Eastern New Ireland wonderful restorations of heads are sometimes met with, tho ornamentation and detail-work being remarkable.

"Whilo the skulls of ancestors are sometimes placed in a definito village shrine,"' concluded. Mr. McGregor, "it is the custom among many tribes for these relics of the past to share the humble habitations of Ilio living, and it is not an altogether uncommon thing in New Guinea, to find these grim, smoke-blackened countenances staring down from the dim, grimy recesses among the rafters of the huts of one's native hosts."