Some Queer Moneys I Have Spent Among Cannibals.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18939, 9 December 1929, Page 8

Some Queer Moneys I Have Spent Among Cannibals.

TO-DAY’S SIGNED ARTICI.F.

Written for the “ Star ” by JACK M’LAREN (Well-known South Seas traveller and author)

Shell Ornaments as Currency are at Par, but Celluloid Counterfeits are Frowned Upon With Clubs in South Seas Cannibal Business Circles.

In many parts of the South Sea Islands, when you think of money yo 1 don’t think of £ s d, or of coins and notes at all, but of miscellaneous heaps of junk and objects of curiosity. For instance, in the region of the Fly River, New Guinea, many purchases are made with shell armlets Called toyias, they are made each from a single thick shell, polished white as paper, and are in great demand by the natives as ornaments. I have bought all sorts of things with them—bags cf copra, supplies of food, seagoing canoes —and because of their size and the necessity to have quantities of them, my “cash box” has often been a large travelling trunk. Their value is according to how near the shoulder they can be worn; and it is distinctly comical to see a native thus biting the coin as it were—forcing the armlet up over his elbow, with the other man watching anxiously. _ I remember at the end of a transaction between two natives, the ex-owner of the armlet—its maker— confiding m me that he had suffered agonies all the time the other man was trying on the armlet, as there was a secret flaw in it and he was afraid the forcing over the elbow would break it, yet for fear of arousing suspicion he was unable to utter warning. “But now he got it on his arm, it all right,” the seller said, with a sigh of relief. It wasn’t all right, however, for some time later the flaw manifested itself and the armlet broke. Whereupon there was a deuce of a row, with threats of bloodshed, which ended only in my swindling friend being forced to make a new armlet. So it appears that makeis and passers of bad money are disliked in the South Seas as much as they are elsewhere. Another swindle I saw tried was even less successful. Coveting a particularly gorgeous headdress for which the owner—a chief —had refused all offers, a young native announced he would give for it an armlet of such remarkable size that it could be worn above the knee, let alone the elbow. Engaged by the prospect of possessing such a wonderful armlet, the chief promised to sell the headdress for it. But all that the young native did was to produce an armlet of merely ordinary size and explain that he had meant the knee of a child—having said nothing about the knee of a man. He demanded that the chief hand over the headdress forthwith, as befitting a man who kept his word. But all he got was a clip over the ear from the chief and such a trouncing from various warriors standing around that he fled into the surrounding jungle and hid there until matters somewhat calmed down. Sapi-Sapi. In another island there is a shell money called sapi-sapi—tiny red shells with holes bored in them so that they can be strung together. A hundred of them are equivalent to about £1 worth of goods, and they are quite a regular currency. They are exceedingly decora tive in the mass, and I once made a kind of bead door-curtain of them —a circumstance which caused the natives to think I was a very wealthy person indeed. But as the curtain gradually, and mysteriously grew thinner and shorter I was compelled finally to

take it down. The temptation to nip off an occasional “coin” or two had proved too much for my house boys There was once a would-be clever white trader who had large numbers of exact celluloid imitations of these shells made in Europe and sent to him in the islands, where he set out to pass them off as real. It was a dirty trick, and at first the natives fell for it. But they soon discovered the decep tion—and one morning the trader was found clubbed to death. They were mostly cannibals in that district, but it was considered that a man like that was too mean and despicable for eating; so they were content merely with killing him. Cannibals are rather discriminating people, you know, as regards their food supply. Tobacco Used. Tobacco is widely used as currency. Indeed, without it one could hardly manage at all. It serves as a kind of small change with which to pay for food, for the day-by-day labour of porters, for tips and presents—in short, for all the small occasion of trade. No matter how well off one might be, to be tobaccoless in the South Seas would be as awkward as having only a £5 note for a bus fare. The tobacco is made up in sticks of twenty-five to the pound weight, and is rank and black. The size and weight are fixed by Govern ment regulation. Blankets, bales of cloth, hand mirrors, beads, axes and all manner of haberdashery and ironmongery odd ments are also used as money. With such things I have paid my fare on a long-distance canoe journey, bought pieces of land and paid for the build ing of a house, materials and all And a good house it was, too, though made of thatch, having three large rooms and a wide verandah all round Once I bought a child with them. It was at Cape York, far-north Australia, and the child was a motherljss native boy. Declaring that he couldn’t be bothered to look after a child, the father had decided to kill the little chap, and it was to save him this that I purchased him. I called him Fitz herbert, reared him as carefully as I could and grew to love him. He Is still alive and flourishing. I regard the buying of Fitzherbert as the strangest use to which any of my hoards of outlandish currencies have been put. Table Salt. In far-inland New Guinea the thing most widely used for money is salt—just ordinary table salt. Because of the distance to the coast and consequent lack of salinity in the air. the natives of those regions crave salt as they crave little else. Very often when they are unfriendly to the stranger, it is the only thing which will induce them to work for him, to carry his goods, to supply him with food. Because of theft I was once left up country entirely without salt and coukl make no progress until a new supply arrived. Without salt I was stranded there as completely as a man without money in a city. Furthermore, I war in danger of my life, for as now while there was none of the much desired commodity to be obtained from me there remained no reason why the nativ-s