Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake Volume I Part 20

Of late the number of natives daily coming off to the ship has rapidly increased, so as now to amount to upwards of 100 in about 15 canoes and catamarans. Those from Tissot Island and the mainland usually arrive in the forenoon, and, after an hour's stay, leave us for the northern village on the nearest Brumer Island, where they spend the night and return the next morning with a fair wind. The noise and scrambling alongside when bartering is going on baffles all description--besides the usual talking and shouting, they have a singular habit of directing attention to their wares by a loud, sharp ss, ss, a kind of hissing sound, equivalent to look at this.

MODE OF BARTERING.

In their bargaining the natives have generally been very honest, far more so than our own people whom I have frequently seen cheating them by pa.s.sing off sc.r.a.ps of worthless iron, and even tin and copper, for pieces of hoop, the imposition not being found out until the property has changed hands. As at the Louisiade iron hoop is the article most prized by the natives, and is valued according to its width and thickness as a subst.i.tute for the stone-heads of their axes. They also showed great eagerness to obtain our hatchets and fish-hooks, but attached little value to calico, although a gaudy pattern, or bright colour, especially red, was sure to arrest attention; but in such matters they are very capricious. Even gla.s.s bottles were prized, probably as a subst.i.tute for obsidian or volcanic gla.s.s, portions of which I saw among them, used in shaving, as was explained to me, and probably also for carving in wood.

NATIVE LADIES ON BOARD.

August 25th.

Yesterday and today, in addition to upwards of a hundred natives alongside bartering, we were honoured with visits from several parties of the Ta.s.sai ladies, in whose favour the prohibition to come on board was repealed for the time. The young women were got up with greater attention to dress and finery than when seen on sh.o.r.e, and some had their face blackened as if to heighten their attractions. The outer petticoat, worn on gala days such as this, differs from the common sort in being much finer in texture and workmanship, besides being dyed red and green, with intermediate bands of straw colour and broad white stripes of palm-leaf.

It is made of long bunches of very light and soft shreds, like fine twisted gra.s.s, apparently the prepared leaf of a calamus or rattan. None of the women that I saw possessed even a moderate share of beauty (according to our notions) although a few had a pleasing expression and others a very graceful figure, but, on the other hand, many of the boys and young men were strikingly handsome. We had no means of forming a judgment regarding the condition of the women in a social state, but they appeared to be treated by the men as equals and to exercise considerable influence over them. On all occasions they were the loudest talkers, and seemed to act from a perfect right to have everything their own way. It is worthy of mention, that, even in their own village, and on all other occasions where we had an opportunity of observing them, they acted with perfect propriety, and although some indecent allusions were now and then made by the men, this was never done in the presence of the women. Of their marriages we could find out nothing--one man appeared to have two wives, but even this was doubtful. The circ.u.mstance of children being daily brought off by their fathers to look at the ship, and the strange things there, indicated a considerable degree of parental affection.

NATIVE DANCES.

Returning to our visitors: the fiddle, fife, and drum were put in requisition, and a dance got up to amuse them. The women could not be persuaded to join, but two of the men treated us to one of their own dances, each having been previously furnished with a native drum or baiatu. They advanced and retreated together by sudden jerks, beating to quick or slow time as required, and chanting an accompanying song, the cadence rising and falling according to the action. The att.i.tude was a singular one--the back straight, chin protruded, knees bent in a crouching position, and the arms advanced; on another occasion, one of the same men exhibited himself before us in a war dance. In one hand he held a large wooden shield, nearly three feet in length and rather more than one in width, and in the other a formidable-looking weapon two feet in length--a portion of the snout of a saw-fish with long sharp teeth projecting on each side. Placing himself in a crouching att.i.tude, with one hand covered by the shield, and holding his weapon in a position to strike, he advanced rapidly in a succession of short bounds, striking the inner side of the shield with his left knee at each jerk, causing the large cowries hung round his waist and ankles to rattle violently. At the same time with fierce gestures he loudly chanted a song of defiance. The remainder of the pantomime was expressive of attack and defence, and exaltation after victory. But a still more curious dance was one performed a few nights ago by a party of natives which had left the ship after sunset and landed abreast of the anchorage. On seeing a number of lights along the beach, we at first thought they proceeded from a fishing party, but on looking through a night-gla.s.s, the group was seen to consist of above a dozen people, each carrying a blazing torch, and going through the movements of a dance. At one time they extended rapidly into line, at another closed, dividing into two parties, advancing and retreating, crossing and recrossing, and mixing up with each other. This continued for half an hour, and having apparently been got up for our amus.e.m.e.nt, a rocket was sent up for theirs, and a blue-light burned, but the dancing had ceased, and the lights disappeared.

ONE REMAINS ON BOARD.

In the evening when the natives were leaving for the sh.o.r.e, one of them volunteered to remain on board on the understanding that some of us should accompany him to Ta.s.sai, where, he explained, there would be plenty of dancing and eating, enumerating pigs, dogs, yams, and coconuts, as the component parts of the feast. He was taken down to the wardroom, and shortly underwent a complete metamorphosis, effected by means of a regatta shirt of gaudy pattern, red neckcloth, flannel trousers, a faded drab Taglioni of fashionable cut b.u.t.toned up to the throat, and an old black hat stuck on one side of his woolly head. Every now and then he renewed his invitation to go on sh.o.r.e, but was satisfied when given to understand that our visit must be deferred till the morrow.

NATIVE SONG.

He was a merry, active, good-humoured fellow, and gave us a number of songs, one of which I wrote down. Although unfortunately I cannot give an accompanying translation, yet this song exhibits the remarkable softness of the language from the great number of vowels.

Ama watuya boyama Manyure gerri gege udaeno Dagi ginoa dagi gino ama Watu yebbo.

Manyure gerri gege udaeno Dagi egino da' gino ama Watu yebbo--watu yebbo.

Most of them--perhaps all--were extempore, as on turning his attention to the moon, he struck up a song in which the name of that body was frequently mentioned. He was treated to an exhibition of the magic lantern in the cabin by Captain Stanley, and a rocket was sent up to his great astonishment and admiration, which he found words to express in "kaiwa" (fire) "kaiwa, oh! dim dim!"

August 26th.

Our guest became very uneasy when he saw no canoes from the island coming off, and no symptoms of lowering a boat to land him. His invitation to the sh.o.r.e and pantomime of killing a pig were repeated time after time, and he became very despondent. Two canoes from the mainland came alongside, and he got into one which shoved off, but quickly returned and put him on board, as they were not going to the island. The poor fellow at last appeared so miserable, being actually in tears, that a boat was sent to put him on sh.o.r.e abreast of the ship, and, when he landed, two young women and a child came running up to meet him. A number of natives on the sandy beach were anxiously watching the boat, as if the long detention of the man on board the ship had made them suspicious of our treatment of him.

PECULIARITIES OF THE PAPUANS.

Without entering into details of uninteresting daily occurrences, I may here give a general account of such circ.u.mstances regarding the natives as have not previously been alluded to or insufficiently described. It would be difficult to state the peculiarities of this portion of the Papuan* Race (including also the inhabitants of the Louisiade) for even the features exhibit nearly as many differences as exist among a miscellaneous collection of individuals of any European nation. They appear to me to be resolvable into several indistinct types, with intermediate gradations; thus occasionally we met with strongly marked Negro characteristics, but still more frequently with the Jewish cast of features, while every now and then a face presented itself which struck me as being perfectly Malayan. In general the head is narrow in front, and wide and very high behind, the face broad from the great projection and height of the cheekbones and depression at the temples; the chin narrow in front, slightly receding, with prominent angles to the jaw; the nose more or less flattened and widened at the wings, with dilated nostrils, a broad, slightly arched and gradually rounded bridge, pulled down at the tip by the use of the nose-stick; and the mouth rather wide, with thickened lips, and incisors flattened on top as if ground down.

(Footnote. As the term Papuan when applied to a Race of Mankind is not strictly correct, I may here mention that whenever used in this work, it includes merely the woolly or frizzled-haired inhabitants of the Louisiade, South-East coast of New Guinea, and the islands of Torres Strait.)

Although the hair of the head is almost invariably woolly, and, if not cropped close, or shaved, frizzled out into a mop, instances were met with in which it had no woolly tendency, but was either in short curls, or long and soft without conveying any harsh feeling to the touch.

COLOUR OF THE HAIR AND SKIN.

In colour too it varied, although usually black, and when long, pale or reddish at the tips;* yet some people of both s.e.xes were observed having it naturally of a bright red colour, but still woolly. The beard and moustache, when present, which is seldom the case, are always scanty, and there is very little scattered hair upon the body.

(*Footnote. Probably artificially produced, as is known to be effected by means of lime water, by the inhabitants of the north-west coast of New Guinea.)

The colour of the skin varies from a light to a dark copper colour, the former being the prevailing hue; individuals of a light yellowish brown hue are often met with, but this colour of the skin is not accompanied by distinctive features.

STATURE AND STRENGTH.

The average stature of these Papuans is less than our own, being only about five feet four inches; this did not appear to be the case when seen alongside, but on board the ship, and especially when clothed, the difference became very apparent. Although well made, and far surpa.s.sing us in agility, they were our inferiors in muscular power. Their strength was tested by means of a deep-sea lead weighing twenty-two pounds which none of the natives could hold out at arm's length, although most of us who tried it experienced no difficulty in sustaining the weight for a few seconds.

Among the people who came alongside the ship one day we noticed two cases of that kind of elephantiasis called Barbadoes Leg, in one combined with enormous distension of the s.c.r.o.t.u.m, which was larger than a man's head, and studded with warts. One of these unfortunate objects had both legs much swollen, especially about the ankle, where the skin was almost obliterated by large scab-like warts, the other, besides the diseased leg, had a huge tumour on the inner side of the right thigh.

WEAPONS.

The weapons procured at this place consist of spears, clubs, a wooden sword, and a shield. Of the first there are several kinds, all larger and heavier than those obtained at the Louisiade, but, like them, made of hard, heavy, well-polished coconut wood. The spears vary in length from nine to eleven feet, with a diameter, where thickest, of rather more than an inch. From their great weight it would scarcely be possible to throw them with effect to a greater distance than from fifteen to twenty yards, and, judging from the signs and gestures of the natives on various occasions when explaining their mode of warfare, they are also used for charging and thrusting with, the neighbourhood of the armpit being the part aimed at as most vulnerable.

The spear in most common use tapers to a point at each end, more suddenly in front and very gradually behind where it usually terminates in a small k.n.o.b with two or three ornamental rings. Sometimes a grommet, or ring of cordage, is worked upon the spear near one end, to prevent the hand slipping when making a thrust. There are many other kinds of spears variously barbed on one or both sides near the head. The fishing spear is usually headed by a bundle of about four or six slender, sharp-pointed pieces of wood, two feet in length, sometimes barbed at the point.

We obtained three clubs here--the only ones seen--one, closely resembling the stone-headed club of Darnley Island, consists of a wooden shaft, four feet long, sharp pointed at one end and at the other pa.s.sing through a hole in the centre of a sharp-edged circular disk of quartz, shaped like a quoit, four inches in diameter; the second is twenty-seven inches in length, cut out of a heavy piece of wood, leaving a slender handle and cylindrical head, three and a half inches long, studded with k.n.o.bs; the remaining one, a less formidable weapon than the others, is flat on both sides, with a serrated edge, and measures twenty-two inches in length and three in width.

ORNAMENTS.

The ornaments worn on this part of the coast are in general so precisely similar to those of the Louisiade, already described, that a brief allusion to them is sufficient. In both places we saw the same nose-sticks, combs stuck in the hair, flat circular earrings, woven and sh.e.l.l armlets, round ornaments made of melon sh.e.l.l, necklaces of dog's teeth and black seeds, and white cowries strung round the legs, arms, and neck. I observed here none of the human jaw bones worn as bracelets so frequently met with in the Louisiade, nor did painting the body appear to be carried to the same extent, although the mode of doing so was the same. Here too we sometimes saw the hair collected and twisted behind into a single or double queue, and procured a neatly constructed bushy wig of frizzled hair. A girdle of split rattan wound about a dozen times round the waist is in common use here, but I do not recollect having seen it in the Louisiade.

MANUFACTURES.

Among other articles of native manufacture I may mention large baked earthen pots* used in cooking, also very neatly made round flat-bottomed baskets in sets of four, partially fitting into each other, with a woven belt to suspend them from the shoulders by--in these various small articles are carried, among them the spatula and calabash, with lime to be used in betel chewing--and a netted bag, a foot and a half in width and one in depth. Their rope is beautifully made of the long tough stringy bark of a tree, strongly twisted and laid up in three strands, and for finer lines and twine a kind of flax, resembling the New Zealand, but still more the Manila sort, is used here. The finest sample of the prepared material which I saw measured eleven feet in length, and consisted of a bundle of rather fine white fibres. Although very much coa.r.s.er than our hemp, it is of nearly uniform size, and possesses considerable strength, but breaks easily when knotted. We saw it in considerable quant.i.ty, but had no means of ascertaining the plant from which it is derived, probably, however, a banana of some kind. We occasionally saw pieces of a white soft papery cloth, apparently similar to the tapa of Polynesia, and like it made of the inner bark of some small tree, but it did not appear to be applied to much use.

(*Footnote. Similar to that figured.)

In the Louisiade we had not observed the betel pepper, but here it was found in common use--both the leaf and green fruit, especially the latter, being added to the lime and areca-nut. Still betel chewing, although a very general habit, is by no means universally practised, for many elderly people retained the original whiteness of the teeth. By the males it appears to be adopted only after attaining the state of manhood, and among the females is almost entirely confined to the old women.

The fondness of these people for flowers and strong-scented plants is remarkable--they wear them in their hair, thrust under the armlets and girdle, or as garlands round the neck. Among the chief favourites may be mentioned an amaranth with purple leaves, giving out a very rich colour upon pressure being applied, and a species of mint-like herb which they dry in bunches, and carry about with them.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

In addition to the drum formerly mentioned, and large sh.e.l.ls--Ca.s.sis or Triton--with a hole at one end, used as trumpets, we saw a small Pandean pipe made of portions of reed of different lengths, and a tube of bamboo, two feet long, which gives out a sound like a horn when blown into.

FOOD.

The staple article of food is the yam, which is produced here in great abundance, of large size, and excellent quality. Several other tubers, or roots, are eaten. Among them is that of a species of Calladium, which requires much cooking to destroy its acridity. The coconut-tree grows everywhere. In the canoes we saw abundance of sugarcane in pieces two feet in length and an inch in thickness, and the natives brought off to us bananas, breadfruit, mangoes, and prepared arrowroot. To a certain extent also the natives feed upon fish, judging from the nets and fishing-spears seen among them. The former, although frequently thirty or forty feet in length, did not exceed eighteen inches in depth--they have small meshes, thin triangular wooden floats, and sh.e.l.ls at the bottom as sinkers. Although we saw many pigs on sh.o.r.e in the village, only one was obtained by barter, in this one a spear wound behind the shoulder was made alongside the ship before handing it on board, but for what purpose we could not understand, as it did not kill the animal. Dogs also I have reason to believe are occasionally eaten, but whether cannibalism is ever practised by these people is a question which we have not the means of settling, as no evidence bearing upon the point could be obtained.

August 29th.

During our stay of thirteen days at this anchorage the wind has usually been strong from East to East-South-East, with dull, gloomy, squally weather, and occasionally showers of drizzling rain. Today, however, the rain was so heavy that we caught seven tons in the awning. To this haziness, which by obscuring distant objects was unfavourable for surveying purposes, we owed our long detention here. As our intercourse with the sh.o.r.e was limited to the two brief visits formerly mentioned, I made no addition to the collection, with the exception of a solitary Helix, nor was anything of zoological interest brought off by the natives, except a string of heads of a species of hornbill (Buceros plicatus) and feathers of a ca.s.sowary, a scarlet lory, and a few other birds. No fish were caught at the anchorage, probably on account of the nature of the bottom--a tenacious, greenish, muddy clay--and the strength of the current which prevented our lines from resting on the bottom.

Observations made with the lead alongside at the time of high and low-water indicated by the sh.o.r.e showed in thirteen days' observations a rise and fall of only from two to six feet. Neither during the ebb nor the floodtide was there any appreciable difference in the direction of the current at our anchorage which set constantly to the westward between West and West-South-West, at the rate of from one to one and a half knots an hour. This current may reasonably be conjectured to come from the northward and sweep round the South-East cape of New Guinea (distant from this anchorage about fifty miles) thus making it appear probable that a clear pa.s.sage exists between the South-East extreme of New Guinea and the western termination of the Louisiade Archipelago: indeed so far as Lieutenant Yule's observations were carried in this direction no reefs were seen to impede his progress to the north-east.

LEAVE THE BRUMER ISLANDS.

September 4th.

Five days ago we sailed from the Brumer Islands, and continued running lines of soundings off and on the coast, the insh.o.r.e details being left as usual to the Bramble. On one occasion, while within a few miles of the sh.o.r.e, the water suddenly shoaled to twelve, ten, and six fathoms, rock or coral, although half an hour before no bottom could be got with a hundred fathoms of line--apparently an indication of a submarine barrier, more or less continuous, running at a variable distance from the sh.o.r.e, and following the general trend of the coast. The appearance of the land seen lately is very fine: the coast being backed by ranges of high mountains presenting a very diversified outline; one of them, named upon the chart Cloudy Mount, attains an elevation of 4,477 feet. Yesterday and today great numbers of a storm petrel (Thala.s.sidroma leucogastra) have been following in our wake.

ANCHOR OFF DUFAURE ISLAND.