DEGRADATION OF THE BRIDE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3303, 23 August 1911, Page 7

DEGRADATION OF THE BRIDE.

LIFE IN DUTCH NEW 7 GUINEA

Captain G. C. Rowling, at a.meetin o if the Royal Geographical Society, describing the work of the expedition to Dutch 'New Guinea, gave his impressions of the natives. -During a year a sojourn amongst them the travelleis obtained considerable insight into many of their customs. Marriage was only witnessed on one occasion, m this instance the men who had escorted the bride up the river, betaking themselves to their homes, whilst the bride preceded by an old woman, crawled through the mud and up the bank on her hands and knees, and in this degraded position disappeared into her future home. Neither m marriage nor birth were any festivities undertaken. At death the whole population breaks into a loud wail, men and women smearing themselves from head to foot, in river mud On two or three occasions the entire' female population, removing every vestige of garment, entered the water together, and, paddling like dogs, swam up the river, only to roll again in the mud, and in this state of dirt and nudity returned to their homes. Ihe corpse itself was either buried and there left till the skeleton was clean, or it was placed in an open grave and turned over daily to hasten decomposition; or it was placed in a canoe-shaped box, roughly covered with a grass mat, and resting on trestles. . The skull, when bare, was preserved in the family hut and carried about from place to place, the large bones of the body being likewise preserved or left to rot. Husbands and fathers were always ready to barter the skull of wife or child for a piece of clotli. When questioned as to what became of the dead the travellers were told that they were “far away,” this followed by a sweep of the hand to tlie horizon.