AN UNKNOWN PEOPLE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3305, 25 August 1911, Page 2

AN UNKNOWN PEOPLE.

AMONG THE MIMIKAS OF DUTCH NEW GUINEA. An extraordinary race, with extraordinary customs, was described before the Royal Geographical Society, recently by Captain 0. G. Rawling, who, with an expedition sent out by the Ornithologist Union of Great Britain, in commemoration of its jubilee, explored Dutch New Guinea, the largest unknown area of land in the world. In the coast villages near the Mimika River (of which only a few _ miles had been previously explored) _ interesting facts concerning the inhabitant? were obtained.

Almost coal-black in color, and rather exceeding the average European in height, the Mimika coast. native, with his splendidly developed muscle, was, said the .lecturer, physically an almost perfect man, but the brutal features of his face, accentuated by a closely-cropped head, made him anything but an attractive creature. The masses of fuzzy, curly hair, in which the natives of other districts took so much pride, were cut off by sharpened shells, split bamboo, or old pieces of hoop iron, and what remained was closely plaited in ridges. The men wore little clothing or ornament, but if a fierce expression was desired the split beak of a hornbill was pushed through a hole in the nose. The women were even less given to trinklets.

“Poor creatures,” said Captain Rawling, “they have little time to think of anything but work.. Widows are rather favored, for their weeds consist oi vl groat poke bonnet, in addition to a, bodice and skirt ,all of grass. Slaves from childhood, worked from daybreak till long after dark in the search of food, and to make the man, the master, happy, they rapidly become old, haggard and hideous.”"

Boys at an early age free themselves from any maternal restraint, simply regarding their mothers as the food providers. Girls, on the other hand, cling closely to the maternal home, and from babyhood join in the work in the sago swamps or in the search for fish and crabs. The front teeth of the men, but not the women, were in many instances sharpened to a point, a painful process, for the operation was carried out by chipping the sides away with a piece of iron, or, if this was not available, a hard shell was i;sed after the manner of a chisel. Though the custom of sharpening the teeth is often put down as a sign of cannibalistic practices, no evidence of this was observed.

Captain Rawling gave a lively account of life in this strange land. What was a peaceful village one minute, would the next Be a scene of turmoil, spears whizzing through -the air, and clubs being wielded indiscriminately and in earnest, whilst the wild yells of men and women alike would bo heard all around. There were nightly broils among the people when they welcomed the expedition, for the joy of its arrival induced the men to break out into wild orgies of drankenness. Daily parties of topers settled round the sugar palms and drank.their fill, of the potent beer, returning at night full of cheer, and winding up the carouse by wife-heating, hOuse-burning, or some such attractive amusement.

A visit was paid to the pigmy village of Wambiriborbiri, which jvas explored nine months previously, and some forty to forty-five men appeared, but despite the heaviest bribes offered for the sight of one woman not one could be seen. Tlieir fires at night showed them to bo encamped high up on the mountain side. The unheard-of price of two axes would not induce the men to bring forward one woman.