NEW GUINEA HOME-LIFE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15350, 13 January 1912, Page 4

NEW GUINEA HOME-LIFE.

Tho MH'iul Imliits of the Mnftiht savages are even more interesting to tlio Western worhl llmii the story of Mr R W. Williamson's journey to their country, the account of wnicli line apiicand in the liondon Standard. .Mr W ; illiaii.ion, who is a member of the touncil o[ tho Anthropological Society, undertook the joiinicy to Now (iuinoa purely for ethnological reasons, and spent some months, making a study of this strange tribe of canniUils. "I rather fancy," he s.iiil, '' that tho Mufnltio are in somo way in coiiiiniiniciitioit with the coast tribes r.f North.-nt Now Ituinea from the fact, tlial ninny of their decorations are made from si;ells. In (Jicir corumonial d:>n<i-s si;ey decorate theinMlves estnivagnntly witft feather ornaments, including those gre.it framework erections reared up somo six feet abovo tlieir head-, riniikir to otheif. feniKl elsewhere in New Guinea. Their social life is very interesting They livo in scattered oluc'ers of villages on a clan system, occupying their own village.!, and each eJai. having its own chief. In each village they have what ethnologists call ' club houics.,' these being liouscs in which tho unmarried men liie, and which arc also thi eeiemonial places—the town hallc, 1 limy call them. The chief of each clan is specially associated with the dub house in the village of his clan, in which ho himself res.idiMt. Tito chio.ftainslup it; hold bv heitdity on the male side. Polygamy is practised, but the average number of wives 'oh ncd' by each man is one, though a rich native may have as many as live. Morality L* exceedingly low. The Mafulue have practically no dvcH, moil mid woiiion alike being niule, except for a narrow loin U>l; but ou the coiust tho women of the tribo wear a short petticoat nincb of lihre. I here is lery little tpiarrclling j tl the vijlugcs. uml tlinro is not much crime, the "win cause of killing baing i|uurrels kI ween member* of one coiitiuuuity and those of aiiolncr. Infanticide is cxt'rcmciy coinmo:, anrl there are various rcatons for tins. J hongli tlio tribe in one of cannibals, Ih'.' liib'.iinon will nofkill a rwrson f or the solo purpose of eating him, but thov will eat lmina,, llcsj. when the victim is ki lod in battle or private light. In ibo latter ease the. slayer j, Tot ;J| olw | ,' share in tho feast.' " Did you run any danger of providing a least for Ukmii?" " "Thov iroiild have made a gcod meal of me if I had got into trouble wit}, them " was the reply "Uit 1 did not quarrel." I'lß flesh, ami they regard Dial animal as a very- valuable commodity. Thov do not worship it, iik has lieen suggested,"hut they slay a great many pigs (or their feasts ami cercinoiiir-, including one at tho sido of their eheifs' graven. Thorv are t»th wild and village pigs, and the latle.- are itscil for special ccnMiioniw; but after tho first there is a subsequent feast at which the wild pigd are killed. In slaturo tlw Jhfiilus arc. not big, but they arc well built, and Uk> women do all the carrying, with tho result that they are better developed in Iho limbs than tlm men. Their icligion really amounts to a fear of spirits. II is not ancestor worship, for I could find no link between this worship of spirit.* (if ono can call it that) and the ancestor worship of other nations. They bolicvo that tin fig tr.;e and certain plants are liaunted, and a reiiiarkabb instacrco of tlieir faith was given ones in the cuso of a father of the mission wlio wisinxl to cut. a plant to help hiui in the buildir.fr cf a hut. Thj Mafulus wanted him not to cut it, but he disregarded their words, i!i.d the oiirious tiling is that tho followi'Z city ho \wn very ill and lid to bo removed to the ooatt. The two main causes of inlerconv.muiity fighting are that a man may be killod cither in vendetta or by sorcery, and that a wife has eloped anil her parents, n~lin may livo in another community, rcfeo to refund ' Ihe prire paid for hex bv the husband. Marriage is a very simple affair. If a young man decides on a woman he goes to hoi parent.! and a price is arranged—some pigs or a toiiiaJsaiViv—mid then the parents go liack with hint to his house. Then they all sit down outside tho houso for a short while, and tho wedding is ovc-r. 'I'hsy have a largo .'lumber of feasts, ajid one of them, which only tokos place at rnrc intervals, is txciHtliugly formal and complicated. I am convinced that t-lia |Kople themsolvcii ib not know its origin, hit I think it has Wine connection with the feasts relating v\ mi:o way to Iho spirits cf doiMtteii chiefs."