PAPUAN CUSTOMS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18687, 22 April 1935, Page 10

PAPUAN CUSTOMS

REPORTS OF PATROLS 1 ROSETTE XS MURDER ! EMBLEM j -- i CANBERRA, April 12. Interesting customs oi the. native tribes of Papua, which ibavc conie under j the notice of. recent patrol .parties, ■ are I described in the aunual reportT'ov 1033- \> .".•'! of the Lieutenant-Governor oJ l'apua, < cir Hubert Muftay., - . .... r ; •• !' Sir Hubert Murray quotes a,,deacnp. ,< Uuii by Pat rot-officer Hides.,..siuee .pro-,' liiotcd "to beau assistant, resident mag- < islrate. of singing which lie heard while i his patrol was in the neighborhood of i Ivirupu .seeking the arrest of a native. ' '•Diuin/ Iho night," said Mr. Hides, '.'we heanl massed singirig in the, Ivirupu ' Milages, about four miles, away. Never ; have I heard such wild .and beautilul songs; it belonged, it seemed, to some giant organ." -.,. . . .., .•■•;' Mr.,, Hides says that the limnicidal, emblem, of the kuiiimaip.ads a J( rp,sette of hark attached to a series of bark girdles that arc invariably worn .round;;; the waist, and are said to, give the.-native gregt stciuimi when climbing mountains. I)K(..\I , ITAi , ION,CI!;UEAI6NY. i ; , Mr, (.'kin liieh, oflicei"ii)lyebar,g«o of ihp Helta Uivisiyu.: (le.scriu.ed.ir.feCenion.V called'Mipa, \\Lich Sir.-Hubert Murray 'says lie had never before heard-of, and ij possibly an old ceremony that had

been given up long ago, and for some reason revived. Mr Kich was informed that the performance was not Considered to 'be complete unless a humun being \M> put to death. The chief nian at .the Mipa was apparently entitled to thu head, for it was lie who actually killed the victim. The second-in-com-mand, who cut oil' the head, must hand it jOv'ev to his superior officer, but received the lower jaw for himself. Sir Hubert'Murray says that the matter is to be further investigated. "I made a reference,in the Jast.annual, report," says Sir Hubert Murray,' "to the rather disconcerting ingenuity oLthc Papuans, who had derived a method ot opening handcuffs with a piece of'striug, and forcing ..a Vale lock, with the key of a meat tin, and we lind now.that the very primitive folk, known indiscriminately by the grotesquely unscientific name of Kukukuku, have found sonic method of cutting up.ax.es and shovels-so as ;to form-knives and other tools. These natives are .always on the * look<out for a chance to,rob the miners) camps of anything made of steel or iron, and Mr Zimmer, resident magistrate, relates, on the authority of Mr Hides, that threequarter axes have been ground out by these people, in such a way us to make tvyp narrow axes, blades of shovels have been cut iut.O strips for use as knives, and the digging cud of a mattock has been cut of)',; leaving the cutting end so that it could be used as an axe. Mr. Zimmer suggests that sand and a flat stone—and a great deal of patience were probably used to carry out this Vitirk. Probably this suggestion is correct, for some stone clubs are made in thy; way, but it must be a tedious process,"

QUEER OUTLETS FOR GIMEF . ■'Papuans, have queer, ways .sometimes of. giving vent, to their, feelings,". ,syys Sir, Hubert Murray, "and Mr. Q. (.'haiupion giv.es aii instance in which a man burnt clown the communal house because his wife had run away with another man. I remember a casein which a man was asked to fetch water when he was tired, and he, too, set lire to the communal house. Another burnt down his own home because his brother refused to sinae a pig that l.i.e had caught, and yet another, overwhelmed with grief at the death uf his child, and finding-an-other native, in a breadfruit ]rec proceeded.to.chop down the tree, and to kill the | native.-with his, axe. Ojioj uuuoycd at- ! •the. crying of- a baby,, killed- his own | mother; and another, unable to find his ' knife,- split open the head- of a friend who was sitting next to him. The-friend hud-'.never seen Ihe knife* but that made ; no difference." :".Isut, after all," comments Sir Hubert Murray, "we act sometimes in very much the same way ourselves. I. have read that, in Australia a man whose wife had eioped gave vent to bis feelings-by try- ; iug to wreck a train. The wife was \ not on the train, but the. act of violence [ relieved him. The same principle is illustrated 'by the. story of the AngloIndian ,Colonel who,..coming - from the ' War Oliico .after an'unsatisfactory iuter- ' view, relieved Lis ifoelings by adminis- ' teriug a violent- kick' at a .perfect ' stranger who was lying his bootlace in '' the street."