HEADHUNTERS IN TOWN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4235, 24 January 1940, Page 4

HEADHUNTERS IN TOWN

GETTING FRIENDLY IN NEW GUINEA

(By

j B.G.P.

in Melbourne Age)

One of the most fascinating districts in th,e world for anyone interested in savages and savage life is the region of the Sepik River. This stream, somewhere (between 600 and 700 miles in length, which flows down to the New Guinea coast from towering mountain background in the north of that island, has on and near its banks hundreds of savage communities, representing scores of native types and cultures—a wealth of material at once enchanting and exasperating to the anthropologist. Even to the completely non-scientific layman who is fortunate enough to see it, life on. the Sepik is a spectacle of never-ending interest.

Very few casual visitors, however, ever manage to get up New Guinea’s greatest river. There is no port at its mouth. Wewak, the nearest town along the coast and administrative centre of the 'district, is normally visited by only one overseas steamer every six weeks. And Wewak is only the jumping-off place for the Sepik, to proceed up which the traveller would have to make his own arrangements for canoe or cutter transport. Labour recruiters often walk overland to the river, and gold miners and prospectors can travel to several points on or near it by regular air services. But the only way to see the Sepik in anything like its entirety is by boat—and regular boat service up the river there is none. Nor, indeed, is there likely to be till civilisation gets a firmer hold on the savage peoples and savage fevers which will prevent the Sepik from becoming a yachtsman’s paradise for quite a; while yet.

Howevei, if the river continues to remain inaccessible to civilised visitors, lately it has been sending out visitors of its own. This is a result of th,e efficient efforts of the New Guinea Administration to encourage friendly relations between natives and Europeans. The process is commenced by visits of patrol officers to native villages, with gradually increasing friendship on both sides, and carried a step further when natives from remote interior districts can -be persuaded to visit a Government outpost. By such tactful means as these the Administration is steadily gaining the confidence of people, Avho quite recently were active head hunters or cannibals, or at any rate were murderously inclined even if they did not engage in either of these homocidal specialities.

A COURTESY CALL The writer was recently fortunate enough to be visiting Wewak at the same time as a small party of Sepik River natives were paying a courtesy call on the district offiteer at that centre. The party of visitors, all men. numbered nine. They brought with them one of their elaborately carved war canoes in which to exhibit their prowess as paddlers, but as guests of the district officer had travelled down the river in the Government cutter, and were to be returned home by the same means. Now, these gentlemen were Government guests, and courteously treated as such. But that did not mean that “government” shut its eyes to the fact that they all had been practising head hunters—the senior member of the party 'was reputed to have had eight heads to his “credit”—and though they were all obviously on their best behaviour for the visit, it was decided to accommodate them in the town “calabus” or lock-up, at night, and keep a police boy in constant attendance on them during the day. Of course nothing offensive was meant by these little precautions, and no doubt the visiting savages were flattered by the attention which they received; but there are quite a number of heads in Wewak and the district officer was determined that n fie of them should leave the shoulders to which they belonged! The highlight of the head hunters’ visit was a demonstration they gave one afternoon on how to handle a 40-foot war canoe. The long, slim craft, carved from a single massive log, was laying on the beach at the start of the exhibition. It was heaved afloat with much shouting and gesticulation byf dozens of local Kanaka labour boys, who, incidentally, were as much thrilled and interested as any \of the white men present. Unfortunately, in their misguided enthusiasm the boys launched the canoe. with its flat, stern foremost, with the result that it was submerged. ’ The men from the Sepik, resplem dent in decorations, of grass and 'feathers, with discs of mother-of-pearl around their necks, and bunches of shell money encircling their wrists, stood looking on contemptu-

ously, leaning on| their 12-foot, feather-plumed paddles, not attempting to interfere with the common herd who were making themselves so ridiculous. As a matter of fact, they would have found it impossible to talk directly to the domestic Kanakas, whose language was quite different from their own. But the D. 0., seeing what had happened, soon had the canoe run on to the beach, drained, and launched again—this time bow first and properly.

AN IMPRESSIVE EXHIBITION Then the paddlers stepped into the canoe and took their position, push--ed off into deeper water, and were off, paddling furiously. The canoe and its crew made a perfect unit and a very striking sight. Besides their body and head adornments, the paddlers had their faces daubed with white and blue pigments, and wore fierce-looking “moustaches,” consisting of bunches of dried grass thrust through holes pierced in the teptum of the nose. Thelir general aspect was undeniably barbaric, -but just a« truly picturesque. The canoe was painted in broad, alternating bands of red, white and blue; along, its edges, on both sides, were carved grotesque little facial images. At the stern it tapered out flat, for the purpose, we were told, of being easily drained. The prow was a carving, integral with the whole craft, of a crocodile’s head, into the gaping jaws of which a bundle of brightly coloured ’leaves had been thrust. Even the paddles were highly decorative; besides having about 3 feet of fluffy plumage on the tops, their curiously slim, flat blades were striped to match the colour scheme of the canoe.

The craft bad no sort of seating aqeonimodation; the paddlers stood upright, thus gaining the advantage of full thrust With their long paddles. Working with the whole weight of their bodies, they sent the canoe clipping along at a surprisingly fast rate—quite fast enough to make extremely uneasy any unfortunates who might be being pursued in grim earnest.

The paddlers circled the bay several times, exhibiting skill in manoeuvring sharp turns in such a long craft, with so little freeboard; the lines of the canoe were virtually straight, and at no point was the hull more than a foot clear of the sea. After demonstrating their prowess with different forms- of stroke, the men brought the canoe in close to the beach, and as the final item on the programme staged a war “dance,” a dance which, though vigorous to the point of being alarming (it seemed that the canoe was going to overbalance any minute) was necessarily performed with, the performers’ feet immobile. Then the canoe was finally driven up on to the beach, while our headhunting friends drew themselves up in line to receive the thanks of the D.O. and the quite genuine dpplausc of the spectators. To all of which they listened with an air, if not actually of boredom, of sdmething perilously close to it.