The Mafulu Part 2

Proportion of height to length.

A 17.6 14.0 12.2 79.5 69.3 B 18.2 14.1 13.2 77.5 72.5 C 17.3 12.7 12.5 73.4 72.3

It will be observed that the lowest of these three cranial indices is a trifle higher than the lowest of those of the head measurements, that the highest of them is much lower than the highest of those of the head measurements, and that their average (76.8) is a little below the average of those of the head measurements.

Dr. Keith had further measurements made of these skulls from the point of view of prognathism and characters of noses and orbits, with the following results:

Skull.

Basi-nasal length.

Basi-alveolar length.

Height of nose.

Width of nose.

Height of orbit.

Width of orbit.

mm. mm. mm. mm. mm. mm.

A 98 102 48 26 40 35 B 99 96 49 25 42 35 C 97 102 47 26 38 35

Dr. Keith, referring to these skulls, says that they disclose relatively small brains, the cranial capacity of A being 1,230 c.c., that of B being 1,330 c.c., and that of C being 1,130 c.c. He compares these figures with the average cranial capacity of the male European, which he puts at 1,500 c.c.

The eyes of the Mafulu people are dark brown and very bright. I never saw among them those oblique eyes, almost recalling the Mongolian, which, according to Dr. Seligmann, are found, though rarely only, on the coast, [29] and of which I saw many instances among the Kuni people.

Their lips are usually not so thick as are those of the Mekeo and Roro people, and are generally finer and more delicate in shape.

In view of their Papuan language I kept a sharp look out for the curious backward sloping foreheads and projecting brow ridges and Jewish-looking noses which are so often found among the Western Papuans; but, although I saw a few examples of these, they were rare, and I did not observe any noticeable tendency in these directions in the faces of the people generally. [30]

A curious characteristic with them is the big toe, which is usually much developed, and projects outwards at a larger angle than is the case with the Roro and Mekeo people, and is much used for holding on to roots, &c., whilst travelling along their rough mountain paths.

Their general colour is a dark sooty brown, a trifle darker, perhaps, than that of the Kuni people, and contrasting forcibly with the varying shades of chocolate which you find among the Roro and Mekeo people. They are smooth-skinned.

Their hair is frizzly, and generally dark brown, often quite dark, almost even approaching to black, and sometimes perhaps quite black. But it is frequently lighter; and indeed I was often, when observing men's hair lit up by sunshine, impressed by the fact that its brown colour was not even what we should in Europe call dark. [31]

I often saw marked variations in the depth of hair colour on the head of the same individual. I saw no examples of the comparatively straight or curly type of hair which is found in the Pokau district and elsewhere. [32]

Plate 3 gives front and side views of the mesaticephalic (almost brachycephalic) skull A and Plate 4 gives similar views of the dolichocephalic skull C. All the photographs were made as nearly as possible exactly half the sizes of the originals; but the photographer has made the front view of skull A about an eighth of an inch too narrow (with, of course, a corresponding deficiency in height), so that the tendency to roundness of this skull is not quite sufficiently shown, and the proportion of its height to its length is reduced, in the plate. I am not a craniologist, and so I do not attempt to discuss the more detailed points of interest which arise in connection with these skulls.

A good idea of the somewhat varying characters of the general physiques and features of the people will be obtained from my plates; but there are a few of these plates which I may mention here.

The people shown in Plates 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 16 may, I think, be regarded as fairly typical, and I would draw attention to the somewhat Melanesian tendency of feature which is disclosed by the faces of the man in Plate 6, the young man in the middle in Plate 7 and the fourth and sixth men from the left in Plate 9; also to the great diversity shown in Plate 9. The man shown in Plate 10, with his thick and strong muscular development, is of a type which is occasionally seen, but which is, I believe, unusual. The two men figured in Plates 11 and 12 are, I think, specially interesting. The one to the right, with his somewhat backward sloping forehead, and slightly arched nose, shows a distinct tendency towards the type of the Western Papuan, to which I have already referred. The other one is in general shape of head and appearance of features not unlike some of the dwarf people found by the recent expedition into Dutch New Guinea (see the man to the left in Plate 4 of the page of ill.u.s.trations in _The Ill.u.s.trated London News_ for September 2, 1911), and indeed there is almost an Australian tendency in his face. It is noticeable that he has a beard and moustache, which is quite unusual among the Mafulu. A somewhat similar type of face may be noticed in one or two of the other plates.

Character and Temperament.

It is difficult to speak with any degree of definiteness on this question. It must be borne in mind that the Mafulu people have been very little in touch with white people, the missionaries, who have only been there since 1905, and on rare occasions a Government official or scientific traveller, being almost the only white men whom the bulk of them have ever seen; and they have been but slightly affected by the outside influences which for some years past have been constantly brought to bear upon the natives of the adjoining coast line and the people of the Mekeo plains; so that comparisons of these people with their more up-to-date neighbours as regards their relative natural characters may well be in some respects misleading.

Subject, however, to this caution I would say that they are lazy and easy-going (though not so much so as the Roro and Mekeo people), lively, excitable, cheerful, merry, fairly intelligent (this being judged rather from the young people), very superst.i.tious, brave, with much power of enduring pain, cruel, not more revengeful perhaps than is usual among uncivilised natives, friendly one with another, not quarrelsome, but untrustworthy and not over-faithful even in their dealings with one another, though honest as regards boundaries and property rights and in the sense of not stealing from one another within their own communities (this being regarded as a most shameful offence), and of very loose s.e.xual morality.

A difference between them and the Mekeo and Roro natives is that they appear to be not so conservative as the latter, being more ready to abandon old traditions and adopt new ideas; though this characteristic is one which shows itself in the young people rather than in the elders with their formed habits.

CHAPTER III

Dress and Ornament

Dress.

The perineal band, made of bark cloth, is the one article of dress which is universally worn by both men and women.

These bands are made by both men and women, but are coloured by men only. They are commonly unstained and undecorated; but some of them, and especially those worn for visiting and at dances, are more or less decorated. Some that I have noticed are stained in one colour covering the whole garment; others in two colours arranged in alternate transverse bands, sometimes with narrow s.p.a.ces of unstained cloth between; and again others have bands of one colour alternating with bands of unstained cloth. Some are decorated with lines or groups of lines of one colour, or alternating lines or groups of lines of two colours, painted transversely across the cloth. Others, while simply stained in one colour or stained or decorated in one of the ways above described, have another simple terminal design near the end of the garment.

The men's bands are usually small and narrow, as compared with those worn by the Roro and Mekeo people; and the women's bands seemed to me to be generally even narrower than those of the men, particularly in front. Men's bands, which I have measured, were about 6 inches wide at one end, narrowing down to about 3 inches at the other; and the widths of women's bands were 4 or 5 inches or less at one end, narrowing down to about 2 inches at the other. But the bands of both men and women, especially those of the latter, often become so crumpled up and creased with wear that the portion pa.s.sing between the legs dwindles down to about an inch or less in width. One is tempted to think, as regards both men and women, that, from the point of view of covering, the bands might be dispensed with altogether. This remark applies still more strongly to the case of young boys and unmarried girls, including among the latter big full-grown girls, who are in fact fully developed women, whose bands can hardly be regarded as being more than nominal, and who, especially the girls and young women, and even sometimes married women who are nursing their babies, can really only be described as being practically naked.

Plate 13 (Figs, 1, 2, and 3) ill.u.s.trates the staining and decoration of perineal bands. [33] Fig. 1 is a section of a man's band about 6 inches wide. The transverse lines, which extend along the whole length of the band, are in alternate groups of black and red. The background is unevenly stained yellow behind the black lines; but the background behind the red lines and the s.p.a.ces intervening between the groups of lines are unstained. Fig. 2 is the pattern near the end of a woman's band about 5 inches wide. The lines are coloured red. There is no pattern on the rest of the band; but the whole of the band, including the background of the pattern, is stained yellow. Fig. 3 is a section of a woman's band about 2 1/2 inches wide. The colouring is in alternate bands of red and yellow with irregular unstained s.p.a.ces between.

I was struck with the gradual reduction of the women's dress as I travelled from the coast, with its Roro inhabitants, through Mekeo, and thence by Lapeka and Ido-ido to Dilava, and on by Deva-deva to Mafulu. The petticoats of the Roro women gave way to the shorter ones of Mekeo, and these seemed to get shorter as I went further inland. Then at Lapeka they were still shorter. At Ido-ido, which is Kuni, the petticoats ceased, and there was only the perineal band. Then, again, at Dilava (still Kuni) this band was narrower, and at Deva-deva, and finally at Mafulu, it was often, as I have said, almost nominal.

I was told that the age at which a boy usually begins to wear his band is about 10 or 12, or in the case of a chief's son 16 or 17; but that girls a.s.sume their bands at a somewhat earlier age, say at 7 or 8. So far as my personal observation went I should have thought that the usual maximum age of nakedness for both boys and girls was rather younger, and I never saw a naked boy of an age anything like 16.

The a.s.sumption of the perineal band is the subject of a ceremony which will be dealt with hereafter.

Caps are very often worn by men, but not by women or children. These are simply pieces of plain unstained bark cloth about 9 inches wide, which are coiled and twisted on the head. The result is often a shapeless ma.s.s; but there are methods of arranging the cloth in definite ways which produce describable results. Sometimes the cloth is merely coiled several times around the head, so as to produce a tall thin turban-shaped band, the crown of the head being left uncovered. Often this plan is extended by turning the end of the cloth over, so as to cover the top of the head, thus producing in some cases a result which resembles a fez, and in other cases one which looks more like a tight skullcap. Again the cap often has its centre terminating in an end or ta.s.sel hanging over, thus making it look like a cap of liberty; and yet again I have seen the cap look almost like the square paper caps often worn by certain artisans at home. These caps are seen in several of the plates.

Abdominal belts are commonly worn by both men and women, but not as a rule by children. There are several distinct forms of these:--

(1) A thick strong dark-coloured belt (Plate 14, Fig. I) made of tree bark; made and worn by men only. The belt is about 3 or more inches wide and is often so long that it pa.s.ses twice round the body, the outer end being fastened to the coil beneath it by two strings. This form of belt is sometimes ornamented with simple straight-lined geometric patterns carved into the belt, but it is never coloured. The process of manufacture is as follows: they cut off a strip of bark large enough for one, two, three, or four belts, and coil it up in concentric circles, like the two circles of the belt when worn. They then place it so coiled into water, and leave it there to soak for a few days, after which they strip off the outer part, leaving the smooth inner bark, which they dry, and finally cut into the required lengths, to which they add the attachment strings made of native fibre.

(2) A belt made of a material looking like split cane and thin strips from the fibre of what I was told was a creeping plant [34]; made and worn by men only. The latter material is obtained by splitting the fibre into thin strips. These strips and the strips of split cane-like material are rather coa.r.s.e in texture. The former are of a dull red-brown colour (natural, not produced by staining) and the latter are stone-yellow. The two are plaited together in geometric patterns. The width of the belt is about 2 inches. It only pa.s.ses once round the man's body; and the plaiting is finished with the belt on the body, so that it can only afterwards be removed by unplaiting or cutting it off.

(3) A belt (Plate 14, Fig. 2) made of stone-yellow unsplit cane; made and worn by both men and women. This is the simplest form of belt, being merely a strip of cane intertwined (not plaited) so as to form a band about half an inch wide, and left the natural colour of the cane. Both men and women, when short of food, use this belt to reduce the pain of hunger, by tightening it over the stomach. It is, therefore, much worn during a period of restricted diet prior to a feast. Women also use it, along with their other ordinary means, to bring about abortion, the belt being for this purpose drawn very tightly round the body. Often two, or even three, such belts are worn together.

(4) A belt (Plate 14, Fig. 3) made of coa.r.s.e, sometimes very coa.r.s.e, stone-yellow split cane or cane-like material; made and worn by men only. This belt is left the natural colour of the material, which is plaited so as to form a band from half an inch to 2 inches broad, the two ends of which are bound together with cane. It also, like No. 2, is finished on the body. A man will often wear two or three of these belts together.

(5) A belt (Plate 15, Fig. i) made out of the inner fibre of a creeping plant [35]; made and worn by men only. The fibre threads used for this belt are very fine, so the plaiting is minute, instead of being coa.r.s.e like that of No. 2; but it is generally done rather loosely and openly. The belt is usually about 2 inches wide or a trifle less and is often plaited in slightly varying geometric patterns. It is not stained in manufacture, but the natural stone-grey colour of the fibre soon becomes tinted as the result of wear and the staining of the wearer's body, and in particular it often becomes an ornamental red. This belt also is finished on the man's body.

(6) A belt (Plate 15, Fig. 2) made of the inner fibre of what I was told was another creeping plant [36] and the stem of a plant which I believe to be one of the Dendrobiums [37]; made and worn by men only. The fibres of the former plant are stained black; the reedy stems of the other plant are put in short bamboo stems filled with water, and then boiled. They are then easily split up into flattish straws, and become a colour varying from rather bright yellow to brown. For making the belt these two materials, looking rather like black and bright yellow straw, are plaited together in various geometrical patterns. The width of the belt is 2 inches, or a trifle more. It is tied at the ends with fibre string.

(7) A rather special form of belt (Plate 15, Fig. 3) used mainly for visiting and dancing; made and worn by both men and women. The belt is made out of a hank of loose separate strands between 4 and 5 feet long, tied together with string or bark cloth at two opposite points, so as to form a belt of between 2 feet and 2 feet 6 inches in length. For better description I would liken it to a skein of wool, as it looks when held on the hands of one person for the purpose of being wound off into a ball by someone else, but which, instead of being wound off, is tied up at the two points where it pa.s.ses round the hands of the holder, and is then pulled out into a straight line of double the original number of strands, and so forms a single many-stranded belt of 2 feet or more in length. It is fastened round the waist with a piece of bark cloth attached to one of the points where the hank has been tied up. [38]

The number of strands is considerable. Belts examined by me and counted gave numbers varying from eighteen to thirty-five, and the number of strands of the belt round the body would be double that. Each strand is made of three parts plaited together, and is one-eighth of an inch or less in width. Various materials, including all the materials used for armlets (see below), are employed for making these belts, some for one and some for another. Sometimes a belt has its strands all plaited out of one material only, in which case the belt will be all of one colour. Sometimes its strands are plaited out of two different coloured materials. There is no colouring of the belt, except that of its strands.

Belt No. 1, as worn, is seen in Plates 9 and 11. Belt No. 3 is worn by the man at the extreme right in Plate 16. It is worn by many of the women figured in the plates, and several of them have two belts. One of the women figured in Plates 18 and 19 has three of them. Belt No. 4 is worn by one of the men figured in Plates 7 and 8 (he has three of them). Belt No. 7 is worn by one or two of the women figured in the frontispiece, the one to the extreme right having a many-stranded belt, and it is excellently ill.u.s.trated in Plate 17.