AMONG PAPUAN SAVAGES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11658, 13 June 1912, Page 6

AMONG PAPUAN SAVAGES.

THE BUSH TRIBES. The current issue of the Royal Geographical Society's "Joui-nal" contains a fascinating account of the experience of the Hon. M. S. Smith, Administrator of Papua, during his recent tour among the hitherto unknown tribes in the interior of West Papua. "They have no-pots or cooking vessels: they wrap their food in leaves and cook it over the lire. May I claim for the Papuan that this is the genesis of paper-bag cookery, and that these dusky savages have Jed the' way in a great culinary reform ?" _ This fact and many others equally interesting are established by Mr Smith.' In every instance but one the tribe, or clan, live in cue communal dwelling, varying .'in dimensions acccvding to the size" of the community, and capable of housing from ten to seventy people. These dwellings, especially the smaller ones, are generally hidden away or perched on steep ridges that are not easy of access, probably front motives of defence.

"By exercising great forbearance and patience," says Mr Smith, "we were fortunately successful in making friends with these bushmen everywhere.. As they had never seen .white men, our arrival caused great excitement. At the first small communal dwelling we reached they all turned out with-their bow. aaid arrows and stood shouting their war cries. They naturally thought we were a maraud-ing-party, and were prepared to defend their wives and children and homes. "While they were in this condition of extreme excitement - our party sat down, and although our arms were ready for any emergency, appeared to take no notice of them, except, to hold up some reel cloth. . They then retired, and when some presents were sent np to the house we found that they had all fled, the hostile demonstration being probably to allow the women and children time to gel away into the jungle. Great care wa/laken that nothing was touched, and a tomahawk, a knife, and some red cloth were left in the house. Not seeing them return we started on our march next morning, and in the .afternoon were overtaken by the natives, who, when they found that we had no desire to hurt them, evinced the greatest joy and made us preents of food.

"After that for tome clays the white men experienced little trouble in establishing friendly relations with, the natives they met. Possibly by some bush telegraph they had notified the other tribes that we had no desire of injuring them. In many instance.* . the friendship of the natives was of great service to the party. Not only were they able to buy,feed, but they showed the' explorers the native tracks, and in one instance tcok the whole party over a wide river in their canoes. "As a head-dress the natives wore the I black plumes of the cassowary, or the feathers of the white cockatoo, and very occasionally the plumes of the raggiaiia bird of Paradise. The lobes _of their ears were pierced, and various tilings hung thereon, from a. pencil of bone to circular pieces of cane and the claws of birds. "Although," says ~Sh- Smith, "it is most improbable that any of these bushmen have ever seen the .sea, it is evident that they are able to carry on some trade with* the coastal men, probably through many intermediate tribes, as they are found wearing seashell ornaments, and possessed, in soma instances, of iron implements, such as a much-used axe blade and plane irons. "While the many tribes of natives ve met on our exploration," adds Jlr Smith, "showed no suspicion and absolute confidence in us,, after we had succeeded in establishing friendly relations, frequently coming to our camp and sitting round the fire at night, and bringing their women and children to see the pale faces during the daytime, they ail, without exception, refused even to taste any feed we offered them, although they would take it and wrap it up in leaves, probably as a curiosity. This refusal may indicate that they possessed a knowledge of poison (we saw a fish-poisoned tree in one of their gardens) ; it may, on the ether hand, have risen from a fear of pouri-pouri, or witchcraft.; or, again, it may be that they were conservative in their commissariat, and did not care to eat new foods they weie not accustomed to."