Papua's Secrets Revealed

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22468, 11 July 1936, Page 3 (Supplement)

Papua's Secrets Revealed

BLACK PHARAOHS, dignified and grave, with elaborate wigs of closely-woven human hair and long, square-cut beards; men who might well have stepped from some age-old Biblical story and been whisked across half the world to the wilds of the tropics; light-skinned men, their girlish mops of brown hair adorned with rosettes of flowers; primitive natives, never touched by civilisation, yet masters of agriculture and orderly farming : cunning savages, whose call to battle is a yodelling cry taken up from hill to hill. All are inhabitants of that vast wonderland, Papua, and all were discovered by two white men, accompanied by a faithful handful of native police and earners, only last year, in a previously unexplored area of "WOO square miles between two of the great rivers of that mysterious land, 'he .Strickland and the I'urari Stories of races and cultures, weird I i-i|)-| | ntes a ini «• 11st <»11 observed since be Stone Age. have heen filtering trom Papua for 100 years, and each decade lia.s produced some daring explorer, anxious in the interests of science and impelled by the native curi-

osity of man, to penetrate further than any of his predecessors. Some have returned safely, bringing well-nigh incredible tales of the inhabitants and-of their own sufferings and privations; others have never reached the coast again, and their fate can only be imagined by those who have known the dangers of disease and starvation, cannibal tribes and wild beasts, that await unwary man in one of the few remaining wild parts of the globe. The history of New Guinea since its discovery by a Portuguese, do Menses, in 1526, is brilliant with stories of high endeavour and dogged pluck. The civilisation and well-being of the tribes that live in that storied land are a trust accepted by modern man, and much of that great responsibility has fallen to the lot of Australia Guarded by Hostile Natives It lias been left to an unassuming young man, in whom the flame of patriotism burns high, to solve and reveal to the world Papua's last secret, which was hidden deep in inaccessible country and guarded by hostile tribes. Mr. Jack Hides, a Government officer, whose genius for overcoming difficulties had already made his name known far from the scene of his work, and a companion ol similar age, Patrol-Oflieer O'Malley, were chosen to examine the area between the Strickland and the Purari Kixers. Six months they took, through dense jungle, swamps, rivers and inouti-

Unknown Tribes Found by Daring Explorers

AMAZING CULTURE OF PRIMITIVE NEW GUINEA NATIVES

By J.F.B.

Specially written for the New Zealand Herald

tains, and the story of their travels is set down by Mr. Hides in his second book, aptly entitled " Papuan Wonderland," and published recently by Blackie. A native sergeant named Orai, nine constables personally known to the leader and 28 carriers, some from the gaols and the rest volunteers, and tho two officers comprised the little party that left Port Moresby on December 10, 1931, bound first for Daru, a low island near the estuary of the mighty Fly River. The expedition proper commenced from Daru on January 1, 1935, and travelled by launch 300 miles up the Fly River. When the launch could go no further the party took to its canoes, and, completely cut off from civilisation, set off toward the unknown territory of the interior. Up the Rentoul River Nomads who fled before the advancing strangers were the first natives encountered. The party travelled on and on up the Rentoul River, after branching off at its junction with tho mighty Fly, but by the middle of February rapids made further use of tho canoes impossible, and the little party went ashore to find its way over 150 miles of mountains to its goal, the Purari River. Going was comparatively easy at first, and a vivid picture of tho beauty of the country through which they were travelling is painted by Mr. Hides. " We commenced cutting a track north-east across low spurs and hills; then we reached a divide between tho main Rentoul and its tributary and advanced through dense timber sit an elevation of about 1000 ft. The forest was always beautiful, with its palms, with its wild balsam and begonia growing among the rocks at the' sides of tho little creeks and with tho hundreds of creeping plants that twined about tho giant timbers. The wild fowl repeated its call everywhere, and occasionally the birds of paradise came to dance in the trees above, making such a noise that one could hardly hear oneself speak. 1 have always loved this forest. Every time I smell the wild apricot,. I look round for a flower. But there is none, and I have never been able to discover whence the scent comes." Early Privations In relays tho party continued its trek, and continued wet weather added to the discomfort of the two white men and their sturdy native companions. The new tents taken for the journey were attacked by some fungus, and commenced rotting and tearing, so that before long they were useless. In spite of difficulties, tlie journey was continued steadily across a vast plateau fortnintr a'divide between two mountain ranges, always toward tho dreaded limestone country that was the greatest barrier in their path. Cultivated areas and glimpses of distant villages indicated the presence of natives, and their primitive customs were revealed to Mr. Hides in startling fashion, "I was suddenly conscious of a sweet and strong perfume in the air, and looking about nie 1 saw two flowering trees, not unlike a pionciana in form and leaf, with masses of pretty golden blossoms," he 6ays. "I later found these trees growing on other village

sites in the vicinity. Always in grim contrast with these beautiful plants was the presence of skulls and heaps of broken human bones to tell their own story of the people's little ways." Of the same people, he tells how the party noticed at night myriads of torches dancing at them from two positions in the north and the northeast. The lights moved backward and forward, apparently in lines, and it looked as though the inhabitants of the place were dancing at those points. "We watched these lights interestedly for somo time; then suddenly from across the valley there came to our ears the sounds of beautiful music," he continues. "At first the sound resembled the deep baying of hounds; but gradually it rose and rose in volume in delightful harmony. Then slowly it died away as though on the bass notes of some organ." The singing and dancing proved to bo a call to strength, something to steel the natives against the strange invaders. Efforts to make friends with the inhabitants were unsuccessful, and Mr. Hides narrowly escaped death when an arrow was fired at him from ambush. Once driven off, however, the natives did not return to the attack, and the explorers passed through the country in peace. April 6 found them faced with the crossing of the feared limestone barrier. "Wo were ou the move at dawn to commence our crossing of the limestone, the terrible limestone that all Papuans dread and which they call the 'broken-bottle country,' " Mr. Hides says, "flow am I to describe this

limestone? How am I to describe the difficulties it presents to the men who try to cross it? After we had been in it some days, I realised to the full that it should "be tackled carefully and deliberately. I should have the fullest pitv for any party that got Into the middle of it and lost their way—or their heads." Many Difficulties Rain and fog, and the almost insurmountable nature of the country, were not tlie only difficulties. Cutting their way through fern and scrub, the explorers were attacked by the tiny fernleeches, which fastened to their eyes, causing pain and also delay. P3 r thons of terrifying dimensions were there, too, and to make matters worse, the food-supply began to run low. They were down to the last few bags of rice, and the men were suffering from scurvy and abscesses that had to be continually lanced, before the dreaded limestone was left behind. In the stretches of beautiful rolling country ahead, great discoveries awaited them, and from the lofty side of Landslide Mountain, Hides and O'Mallcv feasted their eyes on the land of the first of the new tribes encountered. In a huge valley system, there were cultivated squares, and little columns of smoke rising from the homes

of the inhabitants, ■which, resembled farm houses. Kindness won the day for the travellers, and to their delight, the natives gave them food and guides, and made them graciously welcome. "I was astounded at their appearance," writes Mr. Hides, in describing the first men they met. "They were all of short stature, they were clean and light-skinned, and they had girlish mops of brown hair adorned with flowers. Three or four had rosettes of bachelor buttons; others had bands of eidelweiss across their foreheads; some had parrot feathers; while all of them had bono daggers stuck in the cane girdles around their waists. A knitted sporran, tucked between the cane girdles, was all the covering they had. I was. greatly interested in their Asiatic features. Their cheek-bones were high, and their noses and lips were all finely moulded. "When wo came to rest in their parks of casuarina and poplar, these pretty, light-skinned men would make us sit down," the story continues. "They would give us their leaf tobacco to smoke, cultivated and cured by themselves; they would give us sugar-cane to quench our thirst; and before we went on, our hosts would sometimes take out their Pan-pipes from the net bags that every man carried, and play us tunes of a forgotten age."

Brushes •with hostile tribes were fre» quent, but the good offices of a friendly guide ensured the little party safe transit out of the amazing valley. Intense cold took heavy toll of the natives' strength on the following stage, but a reward, in the shape of further discoveries, was found after high country had been crossed. A vaster population the Tarifuroro was there, and a stranger one. "I was struck with their Biblical type of face," the author says. "The first man could have been a black Pharaoh, while the other had the appearance of an old Hindoo brahman."Savages in Wigs Such was the introduction to a race of dark-skinned, bewigged men, with voices deep and guttural, who treated the adventurers as friends, cutting for them supplies of food "with their beautiful axes of greenstone, and providing them with tobacco. There were difficulties ahead. Among now people, signs of cunning and treachery rapidly became apparent, and hordes of armed natives, uttering their peculiar yodelling cry that is a call to battle, were a real danger. Worse, they refused to supply food of any kind, and disdainfully ignored offers of axes and cloth in exchange. Only the strange weapons of the invaders, for thus the natives regarded them, gained them a safe passage into more friendly territory. Short of food, and haunted by the yodelling call to battle of hidden tribes, the party pushed forward doggedly. In spite of illness, Mr. Hides led his little band through unknown country, and the natives, exhausted and half-starved, struggled on manfully as the search for the Purari continued. The chance cap« ture of an old man was their salvation, for he led them to a people who told, of a river on which men travelled in canoes, and Sir. Hides knew that the goal was in sight. A perilous journey by raft, and a desperate crossing of another section of the terrible limestone country, and they found the Purari, and, equally important, real Papuan gardens with food for starving men. Of the death of his faithful orderly, Mr. Hides writes with unashamed emotion; the dying native's last thoughts were for the safety of his master. Fortified with food, and inspired with the knowledge that the journey was nearly done, the natives withstood the tria , of a sudden flood that threatened dis- , aster, and the mountains were left hind. Hides and O'Malley had comfl 1