Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-04-03
NEW GUINEA,

NEW GUINEA.
The Aborlgines Who People the Large
Island North of Observation-Disclosures
Manufacturer and scanty Costumes.
The Port Moresby natives, who be-
long to the extensive Motu tribe, are
great traders. They procure huge
canoes, made of a single tree, from
friendly tribes, with whom they have
commercial relations, further to the
westward. Planks can be easily cut
from these canoes a foot and a half or
two feet in diameter. The houses OF
the village are built along the edge of
the beach on piles. just now is a busy
season. An annual trading voyage is
made by considerable numbers OF the
natives to the districts lying further
west to exchange the pottery of Port
Moresby for sage and canoe-trees.
The women have for some time been
diligently employed in making pottery
for the western market. The process
Of manufacture is simple. On a piece
OF board is placed a mass of moistened
clay. The woman. equipped only with
a smooth stone, which she holds in her
left hand, and a light, bat-shaped piece
of wood. some fifteen inches long, in
the right, squats i'll front of the clay
and, taking from it a lump, beats it
with the bat on the stone till it becomes
concave. Occasionally dipping the
bat into the water and sprinkling the
clay to keep up the proper degree Of
moisture, she gradually fashions the
pot. It is certainly remarkable that
the sizes and shapes Of the different
classes of pots turned out by this rough
process can be SO exactly maintained
as they are. The newly-fashioned pots
are taken to a fire of small logs and
burnt, and while hot are spr'nkled with
q reddish liquor, which colols them.
Large numbers are made for use at
home, and many more for the annual
trading voyages. Two, and sometimes
three, large canoes are dashed side by
side. a few feet apart, and a platform is
placed upon them. On this is piled the
pottery to be taken to market. The
time of the outward voyage is arranged
so that the canoes can start with the
last of the southeasterly monsoon, usu-
ally about the early part Of November,
and return with the sage that has been
given in exchange for the pots, when
the westerly monsoon has set in. Pot
terry and sage are the chief but not the
only articles of exchange. Elaborate
regulations govern the movements of
the trading fleet. No woman is per-
mitted to go on board any canoe be-
longing to it. While under way, if a
banana is eaten, the skin must on no
account be thrown overheard, for fear
of offending the spirits of the deep,
who would also be put out if a cocoa
nut shell. after the milk had been
drunk, was tossed into the sea. The
winds are taken on board in an earth
enware pot. When the fleet arrives at
its destination, usually Manumanu, on
the osborne River, each leading navi-
gator makes his arrangements for
trading. He makes over to a friend on
shore all the goods he ha: brought with
him, and this friend feeds him and his
followers during their stay, and hands
him a certain amount of sage to take
back. If a is required the friend
points out the tree and assists to drag it
when cut to the river.
The natives of this part of New
Guinea are by no means black.
Some of them indeed are very light
in color, and almost golden hair
is not uncommon. This tint is
often met with among the Mel
anesian tribes of the South Seas, who
obtain it by dressing their hair with
lime. But in the neighborhood of
Fort Moresby the lining process is UNI
known and the tint of the hair is nat
ural. The women wear the tj-ta or
petticoat of grass common to many
parts of the Pacific. Their bodies are
covered with tattooing, the breasts
even not excepted. The patterns are
as a rule very elaborate, and a perfect
Maltese cross of eight points with a
disc in the center is frequently seen.
The men are as nearly as possible
naked. The clothing consists literally
of nothing but a string taken round
the waist and passed from back to front
between the legs. Without this tritling
article of dress a man of Motu, the
name of the tribe that dwells about
Port Moresby, would wish not to be
seen. The Motu people speak in very
disparaging terms of some tribes who
live further to the westward, and who,
unlike themselves, are cannibals, be-
cause they are, as the Motu people
say. naked; for they do not even
wear the string. The women wear
necklaces of small white rings or
beads of shell intermingled with black,
pipe-like ''bugles." The men, who,
like all Sonth Sea communities, carry
most ornaments. adorn their heads
with wreaths of black cassowary feath-
ers, and with white plumes of cocka-
toos, which stick out beyond their much
frizzled and bushy hair. They wear
crescent-shaped gorgets of pearl shell:
on their chests. The latter ornament
is frequently worn by young girls, also
but theirs are of a different shape and
larger than the mems.
The natives of New Guinea, except
the few who have more Or less frequent
communication with white men, are
still in the stone age. Their principal
instrument is a greensboro adze. They
fashion armlets Of shells by marking a
line on the surface of the shell of suita-