The band thus produced is of very small, close, fine work, and is quite soft, flexible and elastic, like European canvas, instead of being stiff and hard, like the plaited belts and armlets. The band is generally about an inch (more or less) in width. It is not dyed or coloured in any way, but is often decorated with beads, which are worked into the fabric in one or more horizontal lines, but as a rule, I think, only at irregular intervals, and not in continuous lines. These bands and anklets are seen in many of the plates. In Plates 10, 11 and 12 the bead decorations are seen.

Dancing aprons are made out of bark cloth by both men and women, but coloured by men only. The apron, which is worn at dances by women only, is about 6 to 12 inches wide. It is worn, as shown in Plate 35, in front of the body, being passed over the abdominal belt or a cord so as to hang over it in two folds, one behind the other; and the front fold, which is the part which shows (the back fold being more or less concealed), and is generally 18 inches to 2 feet in length, has at its base a fringe made by cutting the end of the cloth up into strips, equal or unequal in width, the number of which may be only six or less, or may be fifteen or twenty. The front fold is often wholly or partly stained, the colour of the stain being usually yellow, and is always more or less covered with a decorative design, the colours of which are usually black and red. The back fold is generally stained yellow, but never has any design upon it. The fringe is also usually stained yellow, and is without design, except occasionally perhaps a few horizontal lines of colour.

I may say here, as regards these colours, that, so far as my observation went, the colours of the decorative patterns were always black and red, and the general staining was always yellow; and indeed the last-mentioned colour does not show up against the natural colour of the cloth sufficiently clearly to adapt it for actual design work. I am not, however, prepared to say that this allocation of the colours is in fact an invariable one; and, as I know that red is used for general staining of perineal bands and dancing ribbons, it is possible that it, as well as yellow, is used for aprons.

Numerous variations of design are to be found in these garments; and indeed I may say that it is in these and in the feather head decorations that the Mafulu people mainly indulge such artistic powers as they possess.

Plates 36 to 43 are examples of decoration of the front folds of these dancing aprons [47]; and I give the following particulars concerning them, first stating that, subject to what may appear in my particulars, the darker lines and spots represent black ones in the apron, and the lighter ones represent red ones.

Plate. Average width of apron in inches. Notes on ground staining and other matters.

36 6 1/2 Background of design unstained, but back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow. 37 [48] 7 3/4 Ditto ditto ditto 38 5 1/4 Only a little irregular yellow staining behind the design. Back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow. 39 6 Background of design (except fringe part) unstained, but back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow. 40 7 Background of upper (zig-zag) part of design unstained, but that of lower (rectangular) part and whole of back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow. 41 10 1/2 Faintly tinted broad horizontal and vertical lines and triangles in figure represent yellow stain. No other staining in the apron. 42 6 3/4 Background of design unstained, but back fold end of apron and fringe stained yellow. 43 6 3/4 No background staining in the apron. The smallness of the amount of decoration and the substitution of two tails for a fringe are, I think, unusual.

Dancing ribbons are made out of bark cloth by both men and women, but are coloured by men only. These are worn by both men and women at dances, the ribbons hanging round the body from the abdominal belt or a cord, three or four or five of them being worn by one person, and one of these commonly hanging in front. They are generally 2 or 3 inches wide and about 4 feet long, but a portion of this length is required for hitching the ribbon round the belt. I think their ornamentation is confined to staining in transverse bands of alternating colour or of one colour and unstained cloth. Plate 13, Fig. 4, illustrates the colouring of two ribbons (each 2 inches wide), the alternation in one case being red and yellow, and in the other red and unstained cloth; and the men figured in Plate 70 are wearing ribbons, though they are not very clearly shown in the plate.

The feather ornaments for the head, and especially those worn at dances, and the feather ornaments worn on the back at dances present such an enormous variety of colours and designs that it would be impossible to describe them here without very greatly increasing the length of the book. The ornaments are often very large, sometimes containing eight or ten or even twelve rows of feathers, one behind another. They can usually be distinguished from those made by the Mekeo people by a general inferiority in design and make of the ornament as a whole, the Mafulu people having less artistic skill in this respect than the people of the lowlands. The ornaments include feathers of parrots, cockatoos, hornbills, cassowaries, birds of paradise, bower birds and some others. One never or rarely sees feathers of sea-birds, or waterfowl, or Goura pigeons (which, I was told, are not found among the mountains), as the Mafulu people in their trading with the people of the plains take in exchange things which they cannot themselves procure, rather than feathers, which are so plentiful with them.

The black cassowary feather is important in Mafulu as being the special feather distinction of chiefs; but, though chiefs are as a rule possessed of more and better ornaments than are the poorer and unimportant people, they have no other special and distinctive ornament.

Plates 44 and 45 illustrate some of these head feather ornaments. Plate 44, Fig. 1, shows an ornament made out of the brown fibrous exterior of the wild betel-nut, black pigeon feathers and white cockatoo feathers, the betel fibre and black pigeon feathers being, I was told, only used in the mountains. Plate 44, Fig. 2, shows one made out of brown feathers of young cassowary, white cockatoo feathers and red-black parrot feathers. Plate 44, Fig. 3, shows one made out of bright red and green parrot feathers. Plate 45, Fig. 1, shows one made out of black cassowary feathers, white cockatoo feathers, red parrot feathers and long red feathers of the bird of paradise. Plate 45, Fig. 2, is made of cassowary feathers only. This ornament is worn in front of the head, over the forehead, and is specially worn by chiefs.

Plate 46, Fig. 1, shows a head feather ornament which is peculiar to the mountains. The crescent-shaped body of the ornament, which is made of short feathers taken from the neck of the cassowary, is worn in front over the forehead, and the cockade of hawk feathers stands up over the head.

Plate 46, Fig. 2, shows a back ornament of cassowary feathers which is specially intended to be worn by chiefs at dances. The custom is to have from five to twelve of these ornaments hanging vertically side by side, suspended to a horizontal stick, which is fastened on the chief's back at the height of the shoulders, so that the feathers hang like a mantle over his back. The mode in which feather ornaments for the back are hung on sticks is seen in Plate 70, where a stick with pendant ornaments is being held by two boys in front.

Plaited frames (Plate 47) are worn by men in connection with these head feather ornaments. These frames are flat curved bands, rigid or nearly so, generally forming half or nearly half a circle of an external diameter of about 9 inches, and being about 1 inch in width. They are worn at dances and on solemn occasions. They are placed round the top of the forehead, not vertically, but with their upper edges sloping obliquely forward, and have at their ends strings, which pass over the ears and are tied at the back of the head. These frames help to support the feather ornaments, and prevent them from falling down over the face. They are made by men only. A groundwork of small split cane or other material runs in parallel curved lines from end to end, single pieces of the material being generally doubled back at the ends so as to form several lines; and this is strengthened and ornamented by interplaiting into it either split cane or some other material obtained from the splitting of the inside fibre of a plant in the way previously referred to. There are varieties of material and of pattern worked up in different designs of interplaiting. Some of the materials are uncoloured or merely the natural colour of the material, and others are in two colours, generally brown or reddish-brown and yellow. These frames display a considerable amount of variety of artistic design.

The feather erections used at special and important dances, and especially those worn by chiefs, are enormous things, towering 6 or 12 feet above the wearer's head, and are generally larger than those of Mekeo. They are held in a framework, which has an inverted basket-shaped part to rest on the head, and downward pointing rods, which are tied to the shoulders. The frames are to a great extent similar to those of Mekeo, but, having a larger burden to bear, they are more strongly made. These feather erections and their frames are seen in Plate 70.

Here, as in other parts of New Guinea, both men and women, but especially men, love to decorate themselves with bright flowers and leaves and grasses, these being worn in the hair and in bunches stuck into their belts, armlets and leg-bands, and indeed in any places where they can be conveniently fastened.

It is not the practice with the Mafulu for mothers to wear the umbilical cords of any of their children, though apparently the Kuni people do so.



CHAPTER IV

Daily Life and Matters Connected with It

Daily Life.

The early morning finds the wife and young children and unmarried daughters in the house. The husband has been sleeping either there or in the emone (clubhouse), but most probably the latter. The unmarried sons are in the emone, except any very young ones, who have not been formally admitted to it in a way which will be hereafter described. The women cook the breakfast for the whole family inside the house at about six or seven o'clock, and then take the food of the men to the emone. After breakfast most of the men and women go off to the gardens and the bush. The women's work there is chiefly the planting of sweet potatoes, taro and other things, and cleaning the gardens; and in the afternoon they get food from the gardens and firewood from the bush, all of which they bring home to the village; also they have to clear off the undergrowth from newly cleared bush. The men's work is mainly the yam and banana and sugar-cane planting, each in its season, and the cutting down of big trees and making fences, if they happen to be opening out new garden land. They also sometimes help the women with their work. Or they may have hunting expeditions in the bush, or go off in fishing parties to the river. In all matters the men of Mafulu, though lazy, are not so lazy as those of Mekeo and the coast. In the middle of the day the women cook the meal for everyone in the gardens, this being done on the spot, and there they all eat it. At three, four, or five o'clock all the people of the village have returned to it, except perhaps when they are very busy taking advantage of good weather for making new clearings or other special work. In the evening they have another meal cooked in the village. At every meal in the village the pigs have to be fed also, these sharing the food of the people themselves, or feeding on raw potatoes. Unless there is dancing going on, or they are tempted by a fine moonlight night to sit out talking, the people all terminate their routine day by going to bed early.

As regards the daily social conduct of the people among themselves, I was told that the members of a family generally live harmoniously together (subject as regards husbands and wives to the matters which will be mentioned later), that children are usually treated kindly and affectionately by their parents, and that there is very little quarrelling within a village; and what I saw when I was among the Mafulu people certainly seemed to confirm all this.

There are various detailed matters of daily life which will appear under their appropriate headings; but I will here deal with a few of them.



Food.

The vegetable foods of the Mafulu people are sweet potato and other plants of the same type, yam and other foods of the same type, taro and other foods of that type, banana of different sorts, sugar-cane, a kind of wild native bean, a cultivated reed-like plant with an asparagus flavour (what it is I do not know), several plants of the pumpkin and cucumber type, one of them being very small, like a gherkin, fruit from two different species of Pandanus, almonds, the fruit of the malage (described later on), and others, both cultivated and wild. The sugar-cane is specially eaten by them when working in the gardens. [49]

Their animal food consists of wild pig and, on occasions, village pig, a small form of cassowary, kangaroo, a small kind of wallaby, kangaroo rat, "iguana," an animal called gaivale (I could not find out what this is), various wild birds, fish, eels, mice, a large species of snake and other things.

Their staple drink is water, but when travelling they cut down a species of bamboo, and drink the watery fluid which it contains. After boiling any food in bamboo stems they drink the water which has been used for the purpose, and which has become a sort of thin flavoured soup.

Betel-chewing is apparently not indulged in by these people as extensively as it is done in Mekeo and on the coast; but they like it well enough, and for a month or so before a big feast, during which period they are under a strict taboo restriction as to food, they indulge in it largely. The betel used by them is not the cultivated form used in Mekeo and on the coast, but a wild species, only about half the size of the other; and the lime used is not, as in Mekeo and on the coast, made by grinding down sea-shells, but is obtained from the mountain stone, which is ground down to a powder. The gourds (Plate 51, Figs. 6 and 7) in which the lime is carried are similar to those used in Mekeo, except that usually they are not ornamented, or, if they are so, the ornamentation is only done in simple straight-lined geometric patterns. The spatulae are sometimes very simply and rudely decorated. The people spit out the betel after chewing, instead of swallowing it, as is the custom in Mekeo.

Cooking and Eating and Their Utensils.

They have no cooking utensils, other than the simple pieces of bamboo stem, which they use for boiling.

Their usual methods of cooking are roasting and boiling.

Roasting is usually effected by making a fire, letting it die down into red-hot ashes, and then putting the food without wrap or covering into the ashes, turning it from time to time. They also roast by holding the food on sticks in the flame of the burning fire, turning it occasionally. Stone cooking is adopted for pig and other meats. They make a big fire, on the top of which they spread the stones; when the stones are hot enough, they remove some of them, place the meat without wrap or covering on the others, then place the removed stones on the meat, and finally pile on these stones a big covering of leaves to keep in the heat. Stone cooking in the gardens is done in a slightly different way; there they dig in the ground a round hole about 1 foot deep and from 1 1/2 to 2 feet in diameter, and in this hole they make their fire, on which they pile their stones; and the rest of the process is the same as before. This hole-making process is never adopted in the village. The only reason for it which was suggested was that the method was quicker, and that in the gardens they are in a hurry. Of course, holes of this sort dug in the open village enclosure would be a source of danger, especially at night.

Boiling is done in pieces of bamboo about 4 inches in diameter and about 15 or 18 inches long. They fill these with water, put the food into them, and then place or hold the bamboo stems in a slanting position in the flames. This method is specially used for cooking sweet potatoes, but it is their only method of boiling anything. Water, which they keep stored and carry in bamboo receptacles and hollow pumpkins, is boiled in bamboo stems in the same way. The bamboo storage vessels are generally from 2 to 5 feet long, the intersecting nodes, other than that at one end, having been removed. The pumpkins (Plate 52, Figs. 2 and 3) are similar to those used by the Roro coast people and in Mekeo, except that the usual form, instead of being rather short and broad with a narrow opening, is longer and narrower, some of them being, say, 3 feet long, and often very curved and crooked in shape.

Their only eating utensils are wooden dishes and small pieces of wood, or sometimes of cassowary or kangaroo bone, which are used as forks, and pieces of split bamboo, which are used for cutting meat; but these latter are used for other purposes, and rather come within the list of ordinary implements, and will be there described. They also use prepared pig-bones as forks; but these again are largely used for other purposes, and will be described under the same heading.

The dishes (Plate 52, Fig. 1) are made out of the trunk of a tree called ongome. The usual length of a dish, without its handles, is between 1 and 2 feet; its width varies from 9 inches to 1 foot, and its depth from 3 to 6 inches. It is rudely carved out of the tree-trunk, [50] the work being done with stone adzes—unless they happen to possess European axes—and it generally has a handle at one or both ends. It is not decorated with carving in any way. The common form of handle is merely a simple knob about 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. But it is sometimes less simple, and I have a dish one of the handles of which is divided into two projecting pieces about 7 1/2 inches long and joined to each other at the end. The handle is always carved out of the same piece of wood as is the dish; never made separately and afterwards attached. The wooden forks are simply bits cut from trees and sharpened at one end, and they are without prongs. Their use is only temporary, and they are not permanently stored as household utensils. The cassowary and kangaroo bone implements (Plate 25, Fig. 3) are also merely roughly pointed unpronged pieces of bone, and otherwise without special form. When eating en famille they do not always use these pointed wooden and bone sticks, but very commonly take the food out of the dish with their hands only; but if the family had guests with them they would probably use the sticks more, and their hands less. The men and women often eat together, sitting round the dish and helping themselves out of it, though, if there are too many to do this conveniently, pieces will be handed out to some of them.

Various Implements.

Besides the cooking and eating implements above described and other things, such as weapons of war and of hunting and fishing, and implements for manufacture, agriculture and music, which will be dealt with under their own headings, there are a few miscellaneous things which may be conveniently described here.

Bamboo knives (Plate 51, Fig. 5). These are simple strips made out of a special mountain form of bamboo, and are generally 8 to 10 inches long and about 1 inch wide. One edge is left straight for its whole length, and the other is cut away near the end, very much as we cut away one side of a quill pen, so as to produce a sharp point. The side edge which is used for cutting is the one which is not cut away at the end; and when it gets blunt it is renewed by simply peeling off a length of fibre, thus producing a new edge, bevelled inwards towards the concave side of the implement, and making a hard and very sharp fresh cutting edge. The point can of course be sharpened at any time in the obvious way.

Pig-bone implements (Plate 51, Fig. 2). These are the implements which are often used as forks, but they have straight edges also with which they are used as scraping knives, and they are utilised for many other purposes. The implement, which is, I think, similar to what is commonly found in Mekeo and on the coast, is made out of the leg-bone of a pig, and is generally from 5 to 8 inches long. One side of the bone is ground away, so as to make the implement flattish in section, one side (the outside unground part of the bone) being somewhat convex, and the other (where the bone has been ground away) being rather concave. Some of the joint end of the bone is left to serve as a handle; and from this the bone is made to narrow down to a blunt, rather flattish and rounded point, somewhat like that of a pointed paper-cutter. The side edge is used for scraping, and the point for sticking into things.

Smoking pipes are in the ordinary well-known form of Mekeo and the coast, being made of sections of bamboo stem in which the natural intersecting node near the mouthpiece end is bored and the node at the other end is left closed, and between these two nodes, near to the closed one, is a flute-like hole, in which is placed the cigarette of tobacco wrapped up in a leaf. They are, however, generally not ornamented; or, if they are so, it is merely in a simple geometric pattern of straight lines. I obtained one pipe (Plate 51, Fig. 1) of an unusual type, being much smaller than is usual. A special feature of this pipe is its decoration, which includes groups of concentric circles. This is the only example of a curved line which I ever met with among the Mafulu villages, and it is probable that it had not been made there.

Boring drills (Plate 51, Fig. 4) are also similar to those of Mekeo and the coast, except that there the fly-wheel is, I think, usually a horizontal circular disc, through the centre of which the upright shaft of the implement passes, whereas in the Mafulu boring instrument the fly-wheel, through which the shaft passes, is a rudely cut flat horizontal piece of wood about 9 or 10 inches long, 2 inches broad, and half an inch or less thick, and also that in Mafulu the native point, made out of a pointed fragment of the stone used for making club-heads, adze blades and cloth-beaters, is not generally replaced by a European iron point, as is so commonly the case in Mekeo and near the coast. These drills are used for boring dogs' teeth and shells and other similar hard-substanced things, but are useless for boring articles of wood or other soft substances, in which the roughly formed point would stick. [51]

Fire-making. This is a question of process, rather than of implement, but may be dealt with here. To produce fire, the Mafulu native takes two pieces of very dry and inflammable wood, one larger than the other, and some dry bark cloth fluff. He then holds the smaller piece of wood and the fluff together, and rubs them on the larger piece of wood. After four or five minutes the fluff catches fire, without bursting into actual flame, upon which the native continues the rubbing process, blowing gently upon the fluff, until the two pieces of wood begin to smoulder, and can then be blown into a sufficient flame for lighting a fire.

Carrying bags. These are all made of network. I shall say something about the mode of netting and colouring them hereafter, and will here only deal with the bags and their use. They are of various sizes,

(1) There are the large bags used by women for carrying heavy objects, such as firewood, vegetables and fruit, which they bring back to the village on their return in the afternoon from the gardens and bush. These bags are carried in the usual way, the band over the opening of the bag being passed across the front of the head above the forehead, and the bag hanging over the back behind. They are curved in shape, the ends of the bag being at both its top and bottom edges higher than are the centres of those edges, so that, when a bag is laid out flat, its top line is a concave one and its bottom line is a convex one. The network at the two ends of the top line is continued into the loop band by means of which the bag is carried. The usual dimensions of one of these bags, as it lies flat and unstretched on a table (the measurements being made along the curved lines) are as follows—top line about 2 feet, bottom line about 3 feet, and side lines about 18 inches. But when filled with vegetables, firewood, etc., they expand considerably, especially those made of "Mafulu network," of which I shall speak hereafter. These bags are uncoloured. (2) There are similar, but somewhat smaller, bags, in which the women carry lighter things, and which in particular they use for carrying their babies. They frequently carry this bag and the larger one together; and you will often see a woman with a big bag heavily laden with vegetables or firewood or both, and another smaller bag (perhaps also slung behind over the top of the big one, or hanging from her head at her side, or over her breast), which contains her baby, apparently rolled up into a ball. These bags also are uncoloured. (3) There are other bags, similar perhaps in size to No. 2, used for visiting and at feasts, dances and similar occasions, and also sometimes used for carrying babies. The top line of one of these is generally about 2 feet long, the bottom line a trifle longer, and the side lines about 1 foot. These are coloured in decorative patterns. (4) There are small bags of various sizes carried by men slung over their shoulders or arms, and used to hold their betel-nut, pepper and tobacco and various little implements and utensils of daily life. These are sometimes uncoloured and sometimes coloured. (5) There are the very small charm bags, only about 2 inches or a trifle more square, which are used by both men and women (I think only the married ones) for carrying charms, and are worn hanging like lockets from the neck. They are sometimes coloured.

Plate 53 gives illustrations of three of these bags—Fig. 1 being a woman's ornamented bag No. 3, and Fig. 2 being a man's ornamented bag No. 4; but this last-mentioned bag is rather a large one of its type, the usual difference in size between Nos. 3 and 4 being greater than the two examples figured would suggest. The patterns of both these bags, and especially of the larger one, are more regular than is usually the case. The bag shown in Fig. 3 will be dealt with hereafter under the heading of netting.

As regards women, the carrying of bags, either full or empty, hanging over their backs is so common that one might almost regard the bag as an additional article of dress. I may say here in advance of my observations on netting that the distinctive features of Mafulu bags, as compared with those made in Mekeo and on the coast, are the special and peculiar form of netting which is commonly adopted for some of them and the curious lines of colouring with which they are often ornamented.

Hammocks are commonly used in the houses and emone for sleeping. [52] These also are made of network and will be referred to later. The distinctive feature of network mentioned in relation to bags applies to these also, but not that of colouring.

Pottery is not made or used in Mafulu.

I may perhaps refer here to what I imagine to be an ancient stone mortar, which I found at Mafulu, and which I have endeavoured to show in Fig. 2. A portion of the upper part of the original was broken away, and I regret that I did not try to sketch it just as it was, instead of adopting the easier course of following what had been the original lines. I am also sorry that its great weight made it impossible for me to bring it down with me to the coast, [53] and that by an oversight I did not secure a photograph of it. The vessel was well and evenly shaped. It had perfectly smooth surfaces, without any trace of cutting or chipping, and must have been made by grinding. It was devoid of any trace of decoration. Its top external diameter was about 12 inches, its height, when standing upright on its base, was about 8 inches, and the thickness of the bowl at the lip about 1 inch. I was told that similar things are from time to time found in the district, generally on the ridges, far away from water. A Mafulu chief said that the Mafulu name for these things is idagafe. The natives have no knowledge of their origin or past use, the only explanation of the latter which was suggested being that they were used as looking-glasses by looking into the scummy surface of the water inside them. [54]

European things. The Mafulu people are now beginning, mainly through the missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and also through their contact with Mekeo and other lowland tribes, to get into touch with European manufactures. Trade beads, knives, axes, plane irons (used by them in place of stone blades for their adzes), matches and other things are beginning to find their way directly and indirectly into such of the villages as are nearest to the opportunities of procuring them by exchange or labour.

Domestic Animals.

Dogs may occasionally, though only rarely, be seen in the villages, but these are small black, brownish-black, or black and white dogs with very bushy tails, and not the yellow dingo dogs which infest the villages of Mekeo; and even these Mafulu dogs are, I was told, not truly a Mafulu institution, having been obtained by the people, I think, only recently from their Kuni neighbours. A tame cockatoo may also very occasionally be seen, and even, though still more rarely, a tame hornbill. There are no cocks and hens.

The universal domestic animal of the Mafulu, however, is the pig, and he is so important to them that he is worthy of notice. These pigs are "village" pigs, which, though naturally identical with "wild" pigs—being, in fact, wild pigs which have been caught alive or their descendants—have to be distinguished from wild pigs, and especially so in connection with feasts and ceremonies.

Village pigs are the individual property of the householders who possess them, there being no system of community or village ownership; and, when required for feasts and ceremonies, each household has to provide such pig or pigs as custom requires of it. They are bred in the villages by their owners, and by them brought up, fed and tended, the work of feeding and looking after them being the duty of the women. No distinguishing ownership marks are put upon the pigs, but their owners know their own pigs, and still more do the pigs know the people who feed them; so that disputes as to ownership do not arise. The number of pigs owned by these people is enormous in proportion to the size of their villages, and I was told that a comparatively small village will be able at a big feast to provide a number of village pigs much in excess of what will be produced by one of the big Mekeo villages.

These village pigs often wander away into the bush, and may disappear from sight for months; but they nevertheless still continue to be village pigs. If, however, they are not seen or heard of for a very long time (say six months), they are regarded as having become wild pigs, and may be caught and appropriated as such. It is usual with village pigs to clip or shorten their ears and tails, or even sometimes to remove their eyes, so as to keep them from wandering into the gardens. [55] But even a village pig thus marked as such would be regarded as having become a wild pig if it had disappeared for a very long time.

Village pigs (as distinguished from wild pigs) are, as will be seen below, never eaten in their own village on ceremonial occasions, or indeed perhaps at all, being only killed and cut up and given to the visitors to take away and eat in their own villages.

Etiquette.

These simple people do not appear to have many customs which come under the heading of etiquette, pure and simple.

A boy must soon, say within a few weeks, after he has received his perineal band leave the parental home, and go to live in the emone; but this rule only refers to his general life, and does not prohibit him from ever entering his parents' house. If he receives his band when he is very young, this rule will not begin to operate until he is ten or twelve years old. He is in no case under any prohibition from being in or crossing the village enclosure. A girl is allowed to enter the emone, though she may not sleep there, prior to receiving her band, but after that she must never enter it.

A young unmarried man, who has arrived at the marriageable age, must not eat in the presence of women. He can eat in the bush, or inside the emone, but he must not eat on the platform of the emone, where women might see him. There appear to be no other customs of mutual avoidance, as, for example, that between son-in-law and mother-in-law, and with reference to other marriage relationships, such as are found in some of the Solomon Islands, and among various other primitive races.

Children and unimportant adults must always pass behind a chief, not in front of him, and when a chief is speaking, everyone else, old and young, must be silent.

Young men and girls associate and talk freely together in public among other people, but no young man would go about alone with a girl, unless he was misconducting himself with her, or wished to do so.

Visiting is purely friendly and social, and there is no personal system of formal and ceremonial visiting, except as between communities or villages.

There do not appear to be any forms of physical salutation, but there are recognised ways in which men address one another on meeting and parting. If A and B meet in the bush, A may say to B, "Where do you come from?", and B will answer, "I come from——." A may then say, "Where are you going to?", and B will reply to this. Then B may put similar questions to A, and will be similarly answered. These questions are not necessarily asked because the questioner is really anxious for information, but are in the nature of a formality,—the equivalent of our "How do you do?" The system of asking and answering these questions, though well recognised as a social form, is not in practice strictly adhered to. Also A, on coming to a village and finding B there, and wishing to salute him, will call him by name, and B will then call A by name. Then A will say, "You are here," and B will reply, "I am here." This form is more strictly carried out than is the other one. Then when A leaves he will say to B, "I am going," and B will answer, "Go." Then B will call A by his name, and A will call B by name, and the formality is finished. If A, being very friendly with B, comes to his village to see him, on A's departure B, and probably B's family, will accompany A out of the village, and will stand watching his departure until he is about to disappear round the corner of the path; and then they will call out his name, and he will respond by calling out B's name.

Gestures may perhaps be included under this heading, though there is apparently but little to be said about the matter. When a question is asked, an affirmative reply is indicated by nodding the head, and a negative one by shaking it; and, though I asked if this was not probably the result of association with people who had been among white men, I was told that it was not so. A negative answer is also often expressed by shrugging the shoulders, and a kind of grimace with the lips. The nodding of the head to a negative question, such as "Are you not well?" signifies assent to the negative, that is, that he is not well, and so vice-versa with the shaking of the head.



CHAPTER V

Community, Clan, and Village Systems and Chieftainship

Communities, Clans, and Villages.

The native populations of the Mafulu area are scattered about in small groups or clusters of villages or hamlets; and, as each cluster of villages is for many purposes a composite and connected whole, I propose to call such a cluster a "community." Friendships, based on proximity and frequent intercourse and intermarriage, doubtless arise between neighbouring communities, but otherwise there does not appear to be any idea in the minds of the people of any general relationship or common interest between these various communities of the area. Each community regards the members of every other community within the area as outsiders, just as much so as are, say, the Ambo people to the north and the Kuni people to the west. If a community, or group of communities together, were the subject of an attack from either Ambo or Kuni natives, each of these being people whose language is different—as regards the Kuni utterly different—from that of the Mafulu, there would apparently be no thought of other Mafulu-speaking communities, as such, coming to assist in repelling the attack. Hence in dealing with the question of inter-village relationship, I have to fix my mind mainly upon the community and its constituent parts.

Concerning the situation as between one community and another, as they regard themselves as quite distinct and unrelated, the only question which seems to arise is that of the ownership of, and rights over, the intervening bush and other land. The boundaries between what is regarded as the preserve of one community, within which its members may hunt and fish, clear for garden purposes, cut timber, and collect fruit, and that of an adjoining community are perfectly well known. The longitudinal boundaries along the valleys are almost always the rivers and streams, which form good boundary marks; but those across the hills and ridges from stream to stream are, I was told, equally defined in the minds of the natives, though no artificial boundary marks are visible. These boundaries are mutually respected, and trouble and fighting over boundary and trespass questions are, I was told, practically unknown, the people in this respect differing from those of Mekeo.

A community comprises several villages, the number of which may vary from, say, two to eight. But the relationship between all the villages is not identical. There is a clan system, and there is generally more than one clan in a community. Often there are three or more of such clans. Each clan, however, has its own villages, or sometimes one village only, within the community, and two clans are never found represented in any one village, [56] or any one clan spread over two or more communities.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of a typical Mafulu community, the circles representing villages of one clan, the squares those of another clan, and the triangle being the sole village of a third clan.

I have said that the entire community is for many purposes a composite whole. In many matters they act together as a community. This is especially so as regards the big feast, which I shall describe hereafter. It is so also to a large extent in some other ceremonies and in the organisation of hunting and fishing parties and sometimes in fighting. And the community as a whole has its boundaries, within which are the general community rights of hunting, fishing, etc., as above stated.

But the relationship between a group of villages of any one clan within the community is of a much closer and more intimate character than is that of the community as a whole. These villages of one clan have a common amidi or chief, a common emone or clubhouse, and a practice of mutual support and help in fighting for redress of injury to one or more of the individual members; and there is a special social relationship between their members, and in particular clan exogamy prevails with them, marriages between people of the same clan, even though in different villages, being reprobated almost as much as are marriages between people of the same village.

The Mafulu word for village is emi, but there are no words signifying the idea of a community of villages and that of a group of villages belonging to the same clan within that community. As regards the latter there is the word imbele, but this word is used to express the intimate social relationship existing between the members of a clan, and not to express the idea of an actual group of villages. Communities and villages have geographical names. The name adopted for a community will probably be the name of some adjoining river or ridge. That adopted for a village will probably be the name of the exact crest or spot on which it is placed, the minuteness of the geographical nomenclature here being remarkable. Clan-groups of villages, forming part of a community, have, as such, no geographical names, but a member of one such group will distinguish himself from those of another group by saying that he is a man of——, giving the name of the chief of the clan occupying the group.

I was assured that, when there are two or more villages of a clan with a common chief and emone, they have originally been one village which has split up, an event which undoubtedly does in fact take place; while on the other hand the several villages of a clan, presumably the outcome of a previous splitting-up of a single village, will sometimes amalgamate together into one village, which thus becomes the only village of the clan. But two villages of different clans could never amalgamate in this way. The following are examples of these village changes:—

Near to the Mafulu Mission station is a community called Sivu, which includes seven villages occupied by three clans, as follows [57]:—

1. Voitele Belonging to a clan whose chief, Jaria, lives at Amalala, where the clan emone is. 2. Amalala 3. Kodo-Malabe 4. Motaligo 5. Malala Belonging to a clan whose chief, Gito-iola, lived at Malala, where the clan emone is. (He has recently retired in favour of his eldest son, Anum' Iva, who is the present chief, and also lives there.) 6. Gelva 7. Seluku Being the only village of a clan whose chief, Baiva, has recently died. His eldest son, who has succeeded him, is an infant. There is no regency.

Also near the Mission station is a community called Alo, which includes four villages occupied by two clans, as follows:—

1. Asida Belonging to a clan whose chief, Amo-Kau, lives at Asida, where the emone is. 2. Kotsi 3. Ingomaunda 4. Uvande Being the only village of a clan whose chief is Iu-Baibe.

Referring to these villages, in the year 1899 the clan now occupying the four villages Voitele, Amalala, Kodo-Malabe and Motaligo had only a single village, Kaidiabe, the clan's chief being the above-mentioned Jaria. Then there was a Government punitive expedition, following the attack of the natives upon Monseigneur de Boismenu (the present Bishop of the Mission of the Sacred Heart in British New Guinea) and his friends, who were making their first exploration of the district, in which expedition a number of natives, including the brother of the chief, were killed. After that the village was abandoned, and the three villages of Voitele, Amalala and Motaligo arose in its place. Subsequently after a big feast, which was held at Amalala in the year 1909, that village put out an offshoot, which is the present village of Kodo-Malabe. Also in the year 1909 the village of Uvande was represented by seven villages, all belonging to one clan under the chieftainship of Iu-Baibe, the names of which were Ipolo, Olona, Isisibei, Valamenga, Amada, Angasabe and Amambu; but after the feast above mentioned the people of that clan all abandoned their villages, and joined together in forming the present village of Uvande.

The chief, that is the true chief, of a clan has his house in one of the villages of the clan, and if, as sometimes occurs, he has houses in two or more of these villages, there is one village in which is what is regarded as his usual residence, and this is the village in which is the emone of the clan.

As regards the relative predominance of the various clans of a community and their respective chiefs in matters affecting the whole community (e.g., the arranging and holding of a big feast), there is no rule or system. The predominance will probably, unless there be a great disparity in the actual size or importance of the clans, and perhaps even to a certain extent notwithstanding such a disparity, fall to the clan whose chief by his superior ability or courage or force of character, or perhaps capacity for palavering, has succeeded in securing for himself a predominating influence in the community.

The word imbele and certain other words are used to designate the closeness or otherwise of the connection between individuals. Imbele signifies the close connection which exists between members of one clan, and a man will say of another member of his clan that he is his imbele. The word bilage signifies a community connection, which is recognised as being not so close as a clan connection; and a man will say of another, who is outside his own clan, but is a member of his own community, that he is his bilage. The expression a-gata signifies absence of any connection, and a man will refer to a member of another community, Mafulu, Kuni, Ambo, or anything else (there is no distinction between these in the use of the term) as being a-gata, thereby meaning that he is an outsider.

This brings me to the question of the use by me of the term "clan" to designate the intimate association above referred to. To begin with, there is a considerable difference between the situation produced by the clan system, if it may be regarded as such, of Mafulu and that of, say, Mekeo, where one finds several clans occupying one village, and where members of one clan may be scattered over several more or less distant villages; though this latter difference might perhaps arise in part from natural geographical causes, the flat lowlands of the Mekeo people being highly favourable to inter-village communication over their whole areas, and to the holding of their recognised and numerous markets, whilst it may almost be assumed that such intercommunication would be more restricted, at all events in days gone by, among the Mafulu inhabitants of the mountains.

Then again in Mafulu there are no clan badges, nor are there any realistic or conventional representations of, or designs which can to my mind be possibly regarded as representing, or having had their origin in the representation of, animals, birds, fishes, plants, or anything else. As regards this, however, it may be mentioned that the Mafulu people are very primitive and undeveloped, and have not in their art any designs which could readily partake of this imitative character, their artistic efforts never producing curves, and indeed not going beyond geometric designs composed of straight lines, rectangular and zig-zag patterns and spots.

Also I was unable to discover the faintest trace of any idea which might be regarded as being totemistic, or having a totemistic origin. In particular, although enquiry was made from ten independent and trustworthy native sources, I could not find a trace of any system of general clan taboo against the killing or the eating of any animal, bird, fish, or plant. It is true that there are various temporary food taboos associated with special conditions and events, and that there are certain things the eating of which is regarded as permanently taboo to certain individuals; but the former of these restrictions are general and are not associated with particular clans or communities, and the latter restrictions relate separately to the individuals only, and apparently are based in each case on the fact that the food has been found to disagree with him; though whether the restriction is the result of mere common sense based upon individual experience, or has in it an element of superstition as to something which may be harmful to the individual concerned, is a point upon which I could not get satisfactory explanation.

Again, still dealing with the question of totemism, I may say that the community and village names (as already stated, there are no clan names) do not appear to be referable to any possible totemistic objects. There is no specific ancestor worship, in connection with which I could endeavour to trace out an association between that ancestor and a totemistic object, and there is no special reverence paid to any animal or vegetable, except certain trees and creepers, the fear of which is associated with spirits and ghosts generally, and not with ghosts of individual persons, and except as regards omen superstitions concerning flying foxes and fireflies, which are general and universal among all these people, and except as regards the possible imitative character of the Mafulu dancing, which, if existent, is probably also universal.

Moreover, I was told that now, at any rate, the people regard their imbele or clan relationship as a social one, as well as one of actual blood, a statement which is illustrated by the fact that, if a member of one clan leaves his village to reside permanently in a village of another clan, he will regard the members of the latter clan, and will himself be regarded by them, as being imbele, although he does not part with the continuing imbele connection between himself and the other members of his original clan.

On the other hand the association between members of a clan is exceedingly close, so much so that a serious injury done by an outsider to one member of a clan (e.g., his murder, or the case of his wife eloping with a stranger and her family refusing to compensate him for the price which he had paid for her on marriage) is taken up by the entire clan, who will join the injured individual in full force to inflict retribution; and, as already stated, the members of a clan share in one common chief and one common emone, intermarriage between them is regarded as wrong, and apparently each group of villages occupied by a single clan has in origin been a single village, and may well have a common descent. I think, therefore, that I am justified in regarding these internal sections of a community as clans.

Chiefs, Sub-Chiefs and Notables and Their Emone

At the head of each clan is the amidi, or chief of the clan. He is, and is recognised as being, the only true chief.

He is the most important personage of his clan, and is treated with the respect due to his office; but, though he takes a leading part in all matters affecting the clan, he is not a person with any administrative or judicial functions, and he has no power of punishment or control over the members of the clan. In public ceremonial matters of importance, however, he has functions which rest primarily upon him alone, and he does, in fact, always perform these functions in his own village; and on the occasion of a big feast (as to which see below), he does so in whatever village of the clan that feast may be held.

The chief lives in one of the villages of the clan, but may have houses in other villages of that clan also. In the village in which he mainly resides is his emone or club-house, which is the only true emone of the clan; and for the upkeep and repair of this he is responsible. This is the ceremonial emone in his own village, and is always the one used in connection with the ceremony of a big feast in any village of the clan; and, if the feast be held in a village other than that in which is his then existing emone, another one is built in that village in lieu of his former one in the other village.

There is not in connection with these chiefs and their ceremonies any distinctive difference in importance between the right and the left as regards the positions occupied by them on the emone platform or the structure of the emone, such as is found among the Roro people.

Next in rank to the chief, and at the head of each village of the clan, there is a sub-chief, or em' u babe, this term meaning "father of the village." He is not regarded as a true chief, but he is entitled, and it is his duty, to perform in his own village all the functions of the chief, except those connected with the big feast. He and the similar sub-chiefs of the other villages of the clan are the persons who take the prominent part in supporting the chief in any ceremonial function concerning the whole clan in which the latter may be engaged, and in particular at the big feast. The em' u babe is usually a relative of the chief, and at all events is an important personage. He also has in his own village his emone, which is the principal emone of that village, and is used for all ceremonial functions in that village except the big feast, but it is not regarded as being a true emone. The chief holds in his own village of residence both his office of amidi and that of em' u babe, there being no other person holding the latter office in that village.

Next in rank to the sub-chiefs come a number of ake baibe, which means "great men." These are the leading people—the aristocracy—of the clan. There are no distinctive social grades of rank among them. Their number is often very large in proportion to the total number of male inhabitants of a village; indeed sometimes almost every member of a village will claim to belong to this class. These people are in no sense office-bearers, and have no special duties to perform, though on a ceremonial occasion they are entitled to have their importance borne in mind. Each of them also is entitled to have an emone (here again not a true emone) in his village, but in fact their numbers often make this practically impossible, and you rarely see more than two or three emone in one village.

The above are all the chiefs and notables of the clan. There is no such thing as a war chief.

Aristocracy in its various forms is not a condition to which a man attains on getting older—it is attained by inheritance.

The office of the chief is hereditary in the male line by strict rules of descent and primogeniture. On the death of a chief his office descends to his eldest son, or if that son has died leaving children, it descends to the eldest son of that son, and so on for subsequent generations. Failing the eldest son or male issue in the male line of the eldest son, the office devolves upon the late chiefs second son or his male issue in the male line. And so on for other sons and their issue. Failing such male issue the office passes to a collateral relation of the late chief on his father's side (e.g., the late chief's next eldest brother or that brother's son, or the late chief's second brother or that brother's son), the ascertainment of the devolution being based upon a general principle of nearest male relationship in the male line and primogeniture. [58]

The chief holds his office for life, but he may in his lifetime resign it in favour of the person entitled to succeed him, and this in fact often occurs. He cannot, however, on the appointment of his successor still continue in office himself, so as to create a joint chieftainship, as is done in Mekeo. He, as chief, is subject to no special taboo, and there is no qualification for office, other, of course, than hereditary right; but no chief can perform the functions of his office, or build for himself an emone, until he has married. There is no ceremony on the chiefs accession to office on the death of his predecessor; but there is a ceremony (to be described hereafter) on a chief's abdication in favour of his successor. Cases have, I was told, occurred in which a man has in one way or another forced himself into the position of chief, though not qualified by descent, and has thus become a chief, from whom subsequent chieftainship descent has been traced, but I could learn nothing of the circumstances under which this had occurred. Also it has happened that, when a chief has been weak, and has not asserted his position, a sub-chief has more or less usurped his power and influence, without actually upsetting his chieftainship or supplanting him in his performance of ceremonial duties.

If the chief on acquiring office by inheritance is a child, or not qualified to act (e.g., unmarried), he is nevertheless chief; but some person will usually act as his guardian, and perform his functions for him until he has qualified. This person will probably be one of the young chief's eldest male paternal relations (e.g., the eldest living brother of the last previous chief), and will presumably be a person of consequence; but he will not necessarily be one of the sub-chiefs.

All the above observations concerning the hereditary nature of a chief's office and subsequently explained matters apply also to the case of a sub-chief, except that there is no ceremony on his resigning office in favour of his successor, and that the usurpation of the office of a sub-chief, of the occurrence of which I found no record, would perhaps be more difficult of accomplishment. In the event of a village throwing off an offshoot village, or itself splitting up into two villages, the then existing sub-chief of the original village would continue his office in it or, in case of a division, in one of the villages resulting from the split, and the other village would have for its sub-chief some one of the ake-baibe of the original village, probably the one who was most active in organising the split. On the other hand, if several villages united into one, one only of their sub-chiefs could be sub-chief of the village arising from the amalgamation, and the others would sink to the rank of ake-baibe.

The observations concerning the hereditary nature of a chiefs rank also apply to the ake-baibe. I have no information concerning them on the other points; but these are not so important as regards these people, who have no official position and have no duties to perform.

There are, as will be seen hereafter, a number of persons who are employed from time to time to perform various acts and functions of a ceremonious or superstitious character, notably the man who has the important duty of killing pigs at feasts; but these men are not by virtue of their offices or functions either chiefs or sub-chiefs, or even notables or important personages. It is in each case a matter of the specific personal power which the man is believed to possess. Any of them might happen to be an important personage, and the pig-killer, whose office is a prominent one, would probably be one; though in his case muscular strength would, I understand, be an important element of qualification. [59]



CHAPTER VI

Villages, Emone, Houses and Modes of Inter-Village Communication

Villages and Their Emone and Houses.

The Mafulu villages are generally situated on narrow plateaux or ridges, sloping down on each side; but the plateaux are not usually so narrow, nor the slopes so steep, as are those of the Kuni district, and the villages themselves are not generally so narrow, as the contour of the country does not involve these conditions to the same extent. Also the Mafulu villages are on the lower ridges only, and not on the high mountains; but the actual elevations above sea-level of these lower ridges are, I think, generally higher than those of the top ridges of the Kuni. Plate 54 shows the position and surroundings of the village of Salube (community of Auga), and is a good representative example, except that the plate does not show any open grassland.

The villages are, or were, protected with stockades and with pits outside the stockades, and sometimes with platforms on trees near the stockade boundaries, from which platforms the inhabitants can shoot and hurl stones upon an enemy climbing up the slope. The stockade is made of timber, is about 15 to 25 feet high, and is generally constructed in three or more parallel rows or lines, each of the lines having openings, but the openings never being opposite to one another. These protections have now, however, been largely, though not entirely, discontinued. [60] It is, or was, also the practice, when expecting an attack, to put into the ground in the approaches to the village calthrop-like arrow-headed objects, with their points projecting upwards.

The average size of the villages is small compared with that of the large villages of Mekeo, some of them having only six or eight houses, though many villages have thirty houses, and some of them have fifty or sixty or more. The houses and emone are much smaller than those of Mekeo, and much ruder and simpler in construction and they have no carving or other decoration. There are no communal houses.

The houses are ranged in two parallel rows along the side of the ridge, with an open village space between them, the space being considerably longer than it is broad, and more or less irregular in shape. The houses are generally built with their door-openings facing inwards towards the village enclosure.

At one end of the village, and facing down the open space, is the chief's or sub-chief's emone. These are, like the Roro marea and the Mekeo ufu, used, not only in connection with ceremonies, but also as living houses for men, especially unmarried men, and for the accommodation of visitors to the village. There are probably also in the village the emone of one or more of the notables before mentioned, of which one will be at the other end of the village and any others will be among the houses at the side of, and facing into, the village enclosure. There are not often more than three emone, true or otherwise, in one village.

You of course do not find the surrounding palm groves of Mekeo and the coast; nor do you generally see the waste space behind the houses, or the ring of garden plots outside the waste space, the position of the village on its ridge being usually hardly adapted to the latter. You may, however, often find garden plots very near to the village. Each family has its own house, and, except as regards the emone and their use, there are no separate houses for men or women, or for any class of them.

The Mafulu emone is an oblong building, erected on piles of very varying height, the interior floor being anything from 3 to 15 feet above the ground. In size also it varies very much, but generally it is internally about 12 to 15 feet long from front to back, and about 8 to 12 feet in width. The roof, which is thatched with long, rather broad leaves, is constructed on the ridge and gable principle, with the gable ends facing the front and the back, and the roof sloping on both sides in convex curves from the ridge downwards. Remarkable and specially distinctive features of the building are the thatched roof appendages projecting from the tops of the two gable ends (front and back), the forms of which appendages are somewhat like a hood or the convex fan-shaped semicircular roof of an apse, and in construction are sometimes made as rounded overhanging continuations of the upper part of the roof, and sometimes as independent additions, not continuous with, and not forming parts of, the actual roof. In front of the building, but not at the back, is a platform at a level about a foot below that of the inner floor, extending the whole length of the front of the building, and projecting forwards to a distance of from 2 to 5 feet. The approach from the ground to this platform in the case of a high-built emone is a rudely constructed ladder, but when the building is only low and near the ground it is generally merely a rough sloping piece of tree trunk, or even only a stump. The two gable ends are enclosed with walls made of horizontal tree branches, two or three of which are, at both the front and rear ends of the building, discontinued for a short distance in the centre, so as to leave openings. These openings are, say, 2 feet or more above the level of the front outside platform, and 1 foot or more above that of the inside floor, and are usually very small; so that, in entering or leaving the building, you have to step up to, or even climb, and wriggle yourself through the opening, and then step down on the other side. Inside the building you find the centre of the floor space occupied by a longitudinal fireplace, about 2 feet broad, extending from front to back of the building; and the floors on each side of this fireplace slope upwards somewhat from the visible level of the fire-place towards the sides of the building. The fireplace part of the interior is, in fact, dropped to a level below that of the adjoining floors, so as to form a long trough, which is filled up with soil upon which the fire can burn; and it is the visible top level of this soil covering which is practically flush with the inside lower level of the adjacent upward-sloping floors. Some distance below the roof there is usually an open ceiling of reeds, used for the purpose of storing and drying fruits and other things, and especially, as will be seen hereafter, for drying fruit required in the preparation for the big feast.

Fig. 4 is a diagram of the front of an emone, disclosing the internal plan of the floor and fireplace, for which purpose the front hood of the roof and the front platform are omitted from the plan, and of the horizontal front timbers the third up from the bottom is shown at the ends only, the middle part being omitted, and small portions of the timbers immediately above them are omitted. The words in parentheses appearing in the explanatory notes to the figure are the Mafulu names for the various parts of the building.

Explanatory Notes to Fig. 4.

(a) Main posts, one at the front of the building, one in the middle, and one at the back (apopo).

(b) Posts supporting roof, a line of them running along each side (tedele).

(c) Posts supporting outer edge of flooring, a line of them on each side (emuje or aje).

(d) Post supporting inner edge of flooring and hearth, a line of them on each side (foj' ul' emuje).

(e) Lower ridge pole (tanguve).

(f) Main downward-sloping roof work, strongly made, going all the way back, only four or five of them on each side (loko-loko).

(g) Upper ridge pole (tope).

(h) Main horizontal roof work, resting on f (gegebe).

(i) Upper downward-sloping roof work, not so thick as f resting on h, going all the way back at intervals of about 1 foot (engala).

(k) Upper horizontal roof work, not so thick as h resting on i (gegebe)

(l) Thatch made of leaves (asase).

Note.—The roof (excluding the hood) projects forward and overhangs a little beyond the post a, so as to overhang the greater part, but not the whole, of the platform; the hood (not shown in this figure) is really intended to shelter the platform.

(m) Pole supporting roof (karia).

(n) Pole supporting outer edge of floor (karia).

(o) Pole supporting inner edge of floor and enclosing hearth (jakusube).

(p) Floor, composed of transverse woodwork (koimame) with thin light longitudinal lath work on top of it (ondovo).

(q) Pole above inner edge of floor and edging hearth, not so thick as o (bubuje).

(r) Floor of fireplace, upon which soil is put (foj' ul maovo).

(s) Pieces of wood supported by c and d, going right across building and over floor of fireplace, but under its earth, all the way back (kooije).

(t) Wall timbers below top of door-opening, at front and back (kautape).

Note.—t(1)goes right across under door-opening, but the middle portion of it is omitted from the diagram, and the lower edges of timbers t (2) are partly broken off, so as to show floor and fireplace.

(u) Wall timbers above top of door-opening (dibindi).

Note.—t and u together-the whole wall-are called bou.

(v) Uprights bracing together t and u (Mafulu name unknown).

(w) Ceiling made with reeds and used for storing and drying fruit, etc. It may occupy the whole length of the building and the whole width of it, or part only of either or both of these (avale).

(x) Space filled up with soil and used as hearth (foje).

(y) Door-opening, one at back also (akomimbe).



Fig. 5 is a diagram of a transverse section across the centre of an emone, showing the internal construction. The explanatory note only deals with portions not explained in those to Fig. 4.

Explanatory Note to Fig. 5.

Post a is the main central support of the building corresponding with post a in Fig. 4. Posts b b are central side supports to the roof. Poles c and d are attached to posts a b b, and help to strengthen the fabric. These poles are also used for hanging up sleeping hammocks, the other extremities of which are hung to the loko-loko of the roof (Fig. 4, f). The name for post a is dudu, but this word is often used to express the whole structure a b b c d.

I have endeavoured in the diagrammatic sketch—Fig. 6—to illustrate the apse-like projection of the roof of an emone and the platform arrangements. I have in this sketch denuded the apse roof of its thatch, showing it in skeleton only; and I have shaded all timber work behind the platform, in order more clearly to define the latter.

Explanatory Notes to Fig. 6.

(a) Front end of thatch (asase) of main roof.

(b c d) Front apse-shaped roof (siafele), the thatch having been removed to show its internal construction.

(b c, b e, b d) Downward-sloping roof work (engala).

(f f, c d] Horizontal roof work (gegebe), carried round in curves.

Note.—Sometimes the apse-shaped roof is constructed as a continuation of the main roof of the building, in which case the gegebe of the former are a continuation of those of the latter. Sometimes the apse roof is a separate appendage, not connected with the main roof, and in that case the gegebe of the former are separate from those of the latter, and are fixed at their extremities to the loko-loko of the main roof.

(g) Posts supporting the platform (purum'-ul' emuge).

(h) Horizontal platform supports resting at one end on g and at the other end fixed to either the tedele or the emuje.

(i) Platform (purume).

Note.—It will be seen that the front apopo passes through the platform.

(k) Additional supports to the apse roof, which are sometimes added, but are not usual. Their lower ends rest on the platform and they are connected with the apse roof at its outer edge (Mafulu name unknown).

(l) A stump by which to get on to the platform. This is often a rough sloping piece of tree-trunk; where the platform of the emone is high it is a rudely constructed ladder (gigide).

Note.—The entire facade of the front gable end is called konimbe (which means door) or purume (which means platform). That of the back gable end is called apei.

Note.—The height of the door-opening above the outside platform is shown in this figure.

The houses are in construction very similar to the emone, and in fact the above description of the latter may be taken as a description of a house, subject to the following modifications: (i.) The house is never raised high, its floor always being within a foot or two of the ground, (ii.) It is smaller than the emone, its average internal dimensions being about 8 to 12 feet long, and 8 to 10 feet wide, (iii.) The roof generally slopes down on both sides to the level of the ground (concealing the side structure of the house) or nearly so. (iv.) The projecting hood of the roof is only added at the front of the building, and not at the rear; and it is usually separate from, and not continuous with, the real roof. [61] (v.) The platform is generally small and narrow, and often only extends for half the length of the front of the house, and, being always within a foot or two of the ground, it does not possess or require a ladder or tree-trunk approach; it is also narrower. Frequently there is no platform at all. (vi.) There is no entrance opening at the back of the house, (vii.) The front entrance opening is smaller and narrower and more difficult of entry. When the family are absent, they generally put sticks across this opening to bar entry, whereas the entrance opening of the emone is always open, (viii.) The centre house support very often consists of one post only, instead of a combination, (ix.) There is often on one side of the entrance opening a small space of the inside of the house fenced off for occupation by the pigs, and there is a little aperture by which they can get into this space from outside, (x.) The avale ceiling is usually absent; and, even if there be one, it will only extend under a small portion of the roof. [62]

The following are explanations of my plates of villages and their buildings.

Plate. Explanation.

55 Village of Seluku (community of Sivu), with chief's emone at the end facing up the enclosure. 56 Village of Amalala (community of Sivu), with chief's emone at the end of the enclosure. 57 The same village of Amalala (photographed in the other direction), with secondary emone at the end of the enclosure. 58 Village of Malala (community of Sivu), with secondary emone at the end of the enclosure. 59 Village of Uvande (community of Alo), with chief's emone at the end of the enclosure. 60 Village of Biave (community of Mambu), with chief's emone at the end of the enclosure. 61 The chief's emone in village of Amalala. 62 The chief's emone in the village of Malala, at the other end of the enclosure. 63 A house in the same village. 64 A house in village of Levo (community of Mambu).



Communications.

The native paths of the Mafulu people, or at all events those passing through forests, are, like those of most other mountain natives, usually difficult for white men to traverse. The forest tracks in particular are often quite unrecognisable as such to an inexperienced white man, and are generally very narrow and beset with a tangle of stems and hanging roots and creepers of the trees and bush undergrowth, which catch the unwary traveller across the legs or body or hands or face at every turn, and are often so concealed by the grass and vegetation that, unless he be very careful, he is apt to be constantly tripped up by them; and moreover these entanglements are often armed with thorns or prickles, or have serrated edges, a sweep of which may tear the traveller's clothes, or lacerate his hands or face. Then there are at every turn and corner rough trunks of fallen trees, visible or concealed, often more or less rotten and treacherous, to be got over; and such things are frequently the only means of crossing ditches and ravines of black rotting vegetable mud. Moreover the paths are often very steep; and, indeed, it is this fact, and the presence of rough stones and roots, which renders the very prominent outward turn of the people's big toes, with their prehensile power, such useful physical attributes.

Their bridges may be divided into four types, namely: (1) A single tree thrown across the stream, having either been blown down, and so fallen across it accidentally, or been purposely placed across it by the natives. (2) Two or more such trunks placed in parallel lines across the stream, and covered with a rough platform of transverse pieces of wood. (3) The suspension bridge. I regret that I am unable to give a detailed description of Mafulu suspension bridges, but I think I am correct in saying that they are very similar to those of the Kuni people, one of whose bridges is described in the Annual Report for June, 1909, as being 150 feet long and 20 feet above water at the lowest part, and as being made of lawyer vine (I do not know whether this would be right for Mafulu), with flooring of pieces of stick supported on strips of bark, and as presenting a crazy appearance, which made the Governor's carriers afraid of crossing it, though it was in fact perfectly safe, and had very little movement, even in the middle. I also give in Plate 65 a photograph taken by myself [63] of a bridge over the St. Joseph river, close to the Kuni village of Ido-ido, which, though a Kuni bridge, may, I think, be taken as fairly illustrative of a Mafulu bridge over a wide river. [64] Plate 66 is a photograph, taken in Mafulu, of another form of suspension bridge used by them, and adapted to narrower rivers, the river in this case being the Aduala. (4) The bamboo bridge. This is a highly arched bridge of bamboo stems. The people take two long stems, and splice them together at their narrow ends, the total length of the spliced pair being considerably greater than the width of the river to be bridged. They then place the spliced pair of bamboos across the river, with one end against a strong backing and support on one side of the river and the other end at the other side, where it will extend for some little distance beyond the river bank. This further end is then forcibly bent backward to the bank by a number of men working together, and is there fixed and backed. The bamboo stems then form a high arch over the river. They then fix another pair of stems in the same way, close to and parallel with the first one; and the double arch so formed is connected all the way across with short pieces of wood, tied firmly to the stems, so as to strengthen the bridge and form a footway, by which it can be crossed. They then generally add a hand rail on one side.

One can hardly leave the question of physical communications without also referring to the marvellous system of verbal communication which exists amongst the Mafulu and Kuni and other mountain people. Messages are shouted across the valleys from village to village in a way which to the unaccustomed traveller is amazing. It never seemed to me that any attempt was made specially to articulate the words and syllables of the message, or to repeat them slowly, so as to make them more readily heard at a distance off, though the last syllable of each sentence is always prolonged into a continuous sort of wail. This system of wireless telegraphy has, however, been before described by other writers, so I need say no more about it.



CHAPTER VII

Government, Property, and Inheritance

Government and Justice.

There is, as might be expected, no organised system of government among the Mafulu, nor is there any official administration of justice.

As regards government, the chiefs in informal consultation with the sub-chiefs and prominent personages deal with important questions affecting the community or clan or village as a whole, such as the holding of big feasts and important ceremonies, the migrations or splitting-up or amalgamation of villages, and warlike operations; but events of this character are not frequent. And as to justice, neither the chiefs nor any other persons have any official duties of settling personal disputes or trying or punishing wrongdoers. The active functions of the chiefs, in fact, appear to be largely ceremonial.

Concerning the question of justice, it would seem, indeed, that a judicial system is hardly requisite. Personal disputes between members of a village or clan, or even of a community, on such possible subjects as inheritance, boundary, ownership of property, trespass and the like, and wrongful acts within the village or the community, are exceedingly rare, except as regards adultery and wounding and killing cases arising from acts of adultery, which are more common.

There are certain things which from immemorial custom are regarded as being wrong, and appropriate punishments for which are generally recognised, especially stealing, wounding, killing and adultery; but the punishment for these is administered by the injured parties and their friends, favoured and supported by public opinion, and often, where the offender belongs to another clan, actively helped by the whole clan of the injured parties.

The penalty for stealing is the return or replacement of the article stolen; but stealing within the community, and perhaps even more so within the clan or village, is regarded as such a disgraceful offence, more so, I believe, than either killing or adultery, that its mere discovery involves a distressing punishment to the offender. As regards wounding and killing, the recognised rule is blood for blood, and a life for a life. The recognised code for adultery will be stated in the chapter on matrimonial matters.

Any retribution for a serious offence committed by someone outside the clan of the person injured is often directed, not only against the offender himself, but against his whole clan.

There is a method of discovering the whereabouts of a stolen article, and the identity of the thief, through the medium of a man who is believed to have special powers of ascertaining them. This man takes one of the large broad single-shell arm ornaments, which he places on its edge on the ground, and one of the pig-bone implements already described, which he places standing on its point upon the convex surface of the shell. To make the implement stand in this way he puts on the point, and makes to adhere to the shell a small piece of wild bees' wax, this being done, I was told, surreptitiously, though I cannot say to what extent the people are deceived by the dodge, or are aware of it. The implement stands on the shell for a few seconds, after which it falls down. Previously to doing this he has told his client of certain possible directions in which the implement may fall, and intimated that, whichever that may be, it will be the direction in which the lost article must be sought. He has also given certain alternative names of possible culprits, one of such names being associated with each of the alternative directions of falling. The fall of the implement thus indicates the quarter in which the lost article may be found and the name of the thief. Father Clauser saw this performance enacted in connection with a pig which had been stolen from a chief; the falling bone successfully pointed to the direction in which the pig was afterwards found, and there was no doubt that the alleged thief was in fact the true culprit. Presumably the operator makes private enquiries before trying his experiment, and knows how to control the fall of the implement.



Property and Inheritance.

The property of a Mafulu native may be classified as being (1) his movable belongings, such as clothing, ornaments, implements and pigs; (2) his house in the village; (3) his bush land; (4) his gardens.

The movable belongings are, of course, his own absolute property.

The village house is also his own; but this does not include the site of that house, which continues to be the property of the village. Every grown-up male inhabitant of the village has the right to build for himself one house in that village; he is not entitled to have more than one there, but he may have a house in each of two or more villages, and a chief or very important man is allowed two or three houses in the same village. On a house being pulled down and not rebuilt, or being abandoned and left to decay, the site reverts to the village, and another person may build a house upon it. [65] Houses are never sold, but the ordinary life of a house is only a few years.

The man's bush land is his own property, and his ownership includes all trees and growth which may be upon it, and which no other man may cut down, but it does not include game, this being the common property of the community; and any member of the community is entitled to pass over the land, hunt on it, and fish in streams passing through it, as he pleases. The whole of the bush land of the community belongs in separate portions to different owners, one man sometimes owning two or more of such portions; and it is most remarkable that, though there are apparently no artificial boundary marks between the various portions, these boundaries are, somehow or other, known and respected, and disputes with reference to them are practically unknown. How the original allocations and allotments of land have been made does not appear to be known to the people themselves.

The man's garden plot or plots are also his own, having been cleared by him or some predecessor of his out of his or that predecessor's own bush land; and he may build in his gardens as many houses as he pleases. His ownership of his garden plot is more exclusive than is that of his bush land, as other people are not entitled to pass over it. But on the other hand, if he abandons the garden, and nature again overruns it with growth—a process which takes place with great rapidity—it ceases to be his garden, and reverts to, and becomes absorbed in, the portion of the bush out of which it had been cleared; and if, as it may be, he is not the sole owner of that portion of bush, he loses his exclusive right to the land, which as a garden had been his own sole property.

No man can sell or exchange either his bush land or his garden plots, and changes in their ownership therefore only arise through death and inheritance. This statement, however, is, I think, subject to the qualification that an owner of bush-land will sometimes allow his son or other male descendant to clear and make for himself a garden in it; but I am not sure as to the point.

On a man's death his widow, if any, does not inherit any portion of his property, either movable or immovable, but three things are allowed to her. She is generally allowed one pig, which will be required by her at a later date for the ceremony of the removal of her mourning; and she shares with her husband's children, or, if there be none, she has the sole right to, the then current season's crops and fruit resulting from the planting effected by her late husband and herself, though this is a right which, after her return home to her own people, she would not continue to exercise; and she is allowed to continue to occupy her husband's house, but this latter privilege terminates at the mourning removal ceremony, when the house will be pulled down, and its site will revert to the village, and she will probably return to her own people in her own village, if she has not done so previously.

Subject to these three allowances, I may dismiss the widow entirely in dealing with the law of inheritance. I may also dismiss the man's female children by saying that, if there be male children, the females do not share at all in the inheritance, and even if there be no male children the female children will only perhaps be allowed, apparently rather as a matter of grace than of right, to share in his movable effects; and that, subject to this, everything goes to the man's male relatives. I may also eliminate the man's pigs, as apparently any pigs he has, other than that retained for his widow, are killed at his funeral.

On the death of an owner everything he possesses goes, except as above mentioned, to his sons. They divide the movable things between them, but the bush and garden land pass to them jointly, and there is no process by which either of these can be divided and portioned among them. The male children of a deceased son, and the male children of any deceased male child of that deceased son (and so on for subsequent generations), inherit between them in lieu of that son. There does not appear, however, to be any idea in the Mafulu mind of each son of the deceased owner being entitled to a specific equal fractional share, or of the descendants of a deceased son of that owner being between them only entitled to one share, per stirpes. They apparently do not get beyond the general idea that these people, whoever they may be and to whatever generations they may belong, become the owners of the property.

They take possession of and cultivate the existing gardens as joint property. Any one of them will be allowed to clear some of their portion of bush, and fence it, and plant it as a garden, and it will then become the sole property of that one man, and if he dies it will pass as his own property to his own heirs; though, as before stated, if he abandons it, and lets it be swallowed up by the bush, it will cease to be his own garden, and will again be included in the family's joint portion of bush land, and on his death his heirs will only come into the joint bush ownership.

In this way the ownership of a garden must often be in several persons, with no well-defined rights inter se, and the general ownership of bush land which has never been cleared, or which, having been cleared, has been abandoned and reverted, must often be in a very large number of persons without defined rights. In fact, so far as bush land is concerned, one only has to remember that on the death of an owner it passes into joint ownership of children—that on the deaths of these children fresh groups of persons come into the joint ownership—that this may go on indefinitely, generation after generation—that bush, having once got into the ownership of many people, is hardly likely to again fall by descents into a single ownership—that indeed the tendency must be for the number of owners of any one portion of bush steadily to increase—and finally that there is no way by which the extensively divided ownership can be terminated by either partition or alienation—and one then realises the extraordinary complications of family ownership of bush land which must commonly exist.

As regards both movable effects and gardens and bush land there must be endless occasions for dispute. How are the movable things to be divided among the inheritors, and, in particular, who is to take perhaps one valuable article, which may be worth all the rest put together? How are questions of doubtful claims to heirship to bush and garden land to be determined? How is the joint ownership of the gardens to be dealt with, and how is the work there to be apportioned, and the products of the gardens divided? How are the mutual rights of the bush land to be regulated, and especially what is to happen if each of two or more joint owners desires to clear and allocate to himself as a garden, a specially eligible piece of bush? Such situations in England would bristle with lawsuits, and I tried to find out how these questions were actually dealt with by the Mafulu; but there is no judicial system there, and the only answer I could get was that in these matters, as in the case of inter-community bush boundaries and personal bush boundaries, disputes were practically unknown; though it was pointed out to me, as regards bush land, that the amount of it belonging to any one family was usually so large that crowding out could hardly arise.

If a man dies without male descendants in the male line, then, subject perhaps to some sort of claim of his daughters, if any, to share in his movable effects, his property goes to his nearest male relative or relatives in the male line. This would primarily be his father, if living, but the father could hardly be the inheritor of anything but movable things and perhaps garden land, as the deceased could not be the owner of bush land during the lifetime of his father. Subject as regards movable things and perhaps gardens to this right of the father, the persons to inherit everything would be deceased's brothers and the male descendants in the male line of any such brothers who had died; or in default of these it would be the father's (not the mother's) brothers and their male descendants in the male line, and so on for more distant male relatives, every descent being traced strictly in the male line only, on a principle similar to that above explained.

Male infants, by which term I mean young children, there being of course no infancy in the defined sense in which the term is used in English law, like adults, may become possessed of property by inheritance as regards bush and garden land, and by inheritance or otherwise as regards movable property, but they would hardly be likely to be the owners of houses; and the descent from these infants is the same as that in the case of adults.

No woman can possess any property, other than movable property, and even this is at best confined to the clothes and ornaments which she wears. On the death of a married woman all her effects go to her husband, or, if he be dead, they go to her children or descendants, male and female, equally, If she has no children or descendants, they go to her husband's father, or, failing him, to such other person or persons as would have been entitled to inherit if her effects had been those of her husband. Her own blood relations do not come in, as she had been bought and paid for by her husband. If the deceased woman were a spinster, then her effects would pass to her father, or, failing him, to her brothers, or, failing them, to her nearest male relatives on her father's side.

The guardianship of and responsibility for infant children whose father dies falls primarily upon the children's mother, and she, if and when she returned to her own people, would probably take the children away with her, though her sons, who shared in the inheritance from their father, would usually come back again to their own village when they became grown up, and might do so even when comparatively young. If there is no mother of the children, the guardianship and responsibility is taken up by one or more of the relatives of either the deceased father or deceased mother of the children, and it might be that some children would be taken over by some of such relatives, and some by others. There appears, however, to be no regular rule as to all this, the question being largely one of convenience.