The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-06-06
NEW GUINEA.

Manufacturers and scanty Costumes.
The Port Moresby natives, who be-
long to the extensive Motu tribe, are.
great traders. They procure huge
canoes, made of single tree, from
friendly tribes, with whom they have
commercial relations, further to the
westward. Planks can be easily cut
REom these canoes foot and half or
two feet in diameter. The houses of
the village are built along the edge of
che beach on piles. Just now is 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 mass of moistened
Olay. The woman, equipped only with
smooth stone, which she holds in her
left hand, and light, bat-shaped piece
of wood, some fifteen inches long, in
the right, squats in front of the clay
and. taking from it a lump, beats it
with the bat on the stone till it becomes
ooncave. Occasionally dipping the
bat into the water and sprinkling the
clay to keep up the proper degree of
moisture, she gradually fashions the
pot. 1t 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 Cushioned pots
are taken to fire of small logs and
burnt, and while hot are sprinkled with
q reddish liquor, which colors 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, few feet apart, and 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 fieet. No woman is per-
mitted to go on board any canoe be-
longing to it. While under way, if
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 cocoa
ant ah kbn
drunk, was tossed into the sea. The
winds are taken on board in an earth
enware pot. When the feet arrives at
its destination, usually Manumanu, on
the osborne River, each leading navi-
gator makes his arrangements for
trading. He makes over to friend ON
shore all the goods he has 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 canoe 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
Port Moresby the lining process is I'M
known and the tint of the hair is nat
ural. The women wear the TIT 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 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 string taken round
the waist and passed from back to front
between the legs. Without this trifing
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 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 greensboro adze. They
fashion armlets of shells by marking a
line ON the surface of the shell of suita-
BILE size and tapping it with stone till
a circular piece is detached. This is
then smoothed down at the edges and
polished. Near East Cape large axes
of greensboro are used. An acceptable
present is q knife, or, still more. a
tomahawk. Cotton cloth is accepted.
but as yet it has little value in ex-
change. Tobacco, called .by the natives