IN NEW GUINEA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 119, 23 May 1932, Page 6

IN NEW GUINEA

riG'IIRI and WITCHES. A STRAN TRIBE. SYDNEY, May 12. lhe annual report of tho Lieutenant Governor of Papua (Sir Hubert Murray), which has just been cabled to the House of Representatives, reads more Kke fiction than an official document. Sir Hubert approaches his subject with a zeal not often encountered among high Government officials, and tells of the discovery of a pigmy tribe of amazing strength, whose language is like the chattering of cockatoos; of strange burial customs among the pigmy cannibals; of thrilling ascents of mountain peaks more than 13,000 feet in height; of a casual murderer who killed the wrong man; and of humorous incidents in the native Courts over which he pre-1 sided. “We know little about the Papuans, and they know still less about us,” he writes, and then he goes on to recount strange stories that have been brought back to civilisation by white en who have travelled into the mvsterious hinterland. The kindness of the white man towards the natives was not always appreciated. After a native attack on the camp of the patrol officer in the little known mountains of the Gulf division, a native bah; was found in the bush, deserted by the parents in thei. hasty retreat and “crying b's heart out.” A warrior who had received a bullet wound during the attack was also discovered. The man was given medical attention and the baby was cared for, and later both were returned to their tribe. Shortly after a second attack was made on,the camp, and when it was over the patrol; officer counted no fewer than 153 ar-' TOWS. Journeys by patrol officers into the mountainous country near the boun-1 dary line between Papua and Newi Guinea have shown that most of the

natives in that area are pigmies, fheir average height is 4ft. 7in , although in most of the tribes there is at least one man about sft. 6in. .They dispose of their dead in a sort of cage, which is built some 6ft. above the ground. Some of the remains are mummified by a process unknown to white men. The pigmies will eat anything that offers, including human beings, one patrol officer describing them as “necessarily cannibals.” Frogs, prawns, and beetles are regaided as particular delicacies. Two miners who made what Sir Hubert describes as “a really extra ordinary journey” from New Guinea into Papua report having seen native.-, with “fair golden woolly hai;.” Sir Hubert states that he had not previ ously heard of such natives, although there are said to be golden-haired natives in New Britain. Discussing the influence of women on the tribes Ihe declares that sorceresses r almost invariably behind native crime and dis order; but he relates one instance of witchcraft actually upholding the law “Tho men of Keveri, weary of peace and quiet, sallied forth against the village of Lauwa, armed to tho teeth and spoiling for a fight,” he writes. “But as they approached their objective a strange feeling of uneasiness crept over them. Their bellies began to tremble, they exp’ ' icd with simple directness, and they went home. Their wives had made sorcery against them.” But as a general thing the women of Papua were agreed that “none but the brave deserve the fair.” I ■