The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-10-22
NEW GUINEANS.
The Manners and Customs Of
These Blood-Thirsty Savages.
The Deadly Man-Catcher-Natives who
Decorate Their Houses and Them
selves with Human lsones-Al-
ligator-Shsped Dwellings
and Alligator Stories.

The manners and customs of New
Guinea are rather startling. In the new
book on New Guinea, By Rev. James
Chalmers, we read of u people that
wear nose-jewels three-quarters of an
inch in diameter, and daub their faces
in stripes of black, white, red and vel
low; who when in mourning paint them
selves all over black, and wear net col
lars. and when in very deep mourning
get inside a very tght kind of wicker
work dress. extending from the neck to
the knees in such way that they are
not able to walk well. We read of
head-dresses seven feet high, built up
ON wooden frame, while at Kabadi
and Mara they have frames about two
feet and half in height and three feet
broad, and from the center a stick ten
or twelve feet long; on tho frame and
center they fasten plumes until all the
wood is hidden. We read of tattooed
chiefs. each mark on whom means a
life violently taken. and some of whom
medals of honor.
The only field in which these people
have shown much skill and ingenuity
is in the manufacture of weapons. The
most deadly is known as the man-ca.ch-
-cr, and was invented by the natives of
Huon Bay, but it is commonly used all
over the island. The popularity Of the
man-catcher is the spike in its handle,
which, once the loop is over the neck,
can hardly fail to be fatal.
In canoes, too, the people are rather
ingenious, the Port Moresby natives,
during the southeast monsoon. lsshing
their canoes together, sometimes up to
as many as fifteen, and forming safe
and peculisr-leoking raft. The houses,
= too, are strange. In that temporarily
occupied BY the teachers. skulls, shells
and cocoanuts are hung all about; the
skulls are those of the enemies he and
his people have eaten. Inside the house,
hung up on the wall. is a large collec-
ton of human bones, bones of animals
and of fish. Bones are much in use for
decorative purposes. One of our guides
to the village wore as an armlet the
jawhone of a man from the mainland
he had killed and eaten; others strutted
about with human bones dSngling from
their hair and about their necks.
Some of the houses are in the tops of
trees, with ladders of long vines on each
side to assist the ascent; some are like
animals. The largest houses are built to
represent an alligator with open mouth;
the platform in front of the house is the
lower jaw. and the long shade over the
platform the upper, SO that standing on
the platform you stand in the alligator's
mouth, the house sloping to appear as
body. And in some districts the houses
have a regular burglar alarm. On the
door hangs a bunch of nntshells, so that
when the door is shut or opened they
make noise. Should the occupants of
the house be asleep, and their foes come,
they would, upon the door being opened.
be wakened. Spears and clubs are all
handy.
And the domestic utensils are pecu-
liar. In crossing one of the spurs ma
tive and his son brought US bananas,
and water in a bamboo. The natives
had been having feast. They began
with boiled bananas and finished with
lafge snake cooked in pots. 1t was cut
up and divided out among all. They
seemed to relish it much. and the gravy
was much thought of. They say pig is
nothing compared to snake. All, we'll,
tastes differ.
Of the animal life. we saw three nests
of the mound-building jungle-fowl or
megapode; one of them was fifty-one
feet in diameter. 1t is said that larger
nests exist at East Cape. 1t seems in
credible that so small a bird should
Hvrrl n mob l.
In point Of fact. however. no such
mound was ever built by single bird
or in one season. The jungle-fowl never
sits upon her eggs, but buries them deep
in the mound, to be Matched by the heat
of the sun and fermentation. We had
two very fine eggs for breakfast: being
fresh, they proved to be capital eating.
One morning we had camped on a spur
of the Owen Stanley range. and being
up early to enjoy the cool atmosphere, 1
saw on one of clump of trees close BY
six birds of paradise, dressed in their
very best, their ruffs of green and vel
low standing out giving them a large,
handsome appearance about the head
and neck, their long. flowing plumes
so arranged that every feather seemed
carefully combed out, and the long wires
stretched weR out behind were dancing
around in a circle. 1t was an interest
ing sight. A shot was fired. contrary
to my expressed wish. There was q
strange commotion. and two of the
birds flew away, the others remaining.
Soon the two returned, and again the
dance began and continued long. as all
fear was gone, / having strictly forbid
den any more shooting. Quarreling