The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-08-11
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meals in their clupnou.es. The New
Guinea natives do not believe in much fat.
1t Is q disgrace TO be feshy. and the men
dread extra adipose tissue as much as do
our society women. Indeed. the anti-fat
auacks could do a thriving business In
New Guinea
As TO food. the people are chiefly vege-
tarians. They live on vans. bananas and
sweet potatoes. They are not particular.
however. and when they can get them
will eat kangaroos. pigs, dogs. snakes and
lizards. They are fond OF grubs or larvae.
and the women dig these out Of the trees
and cook them.
New Guinea CIubhOuses
In many Of the New Guinea tribes the
men and women live apart. The men have
clubEouses In which they sleep and eat.
The women live in huts off by themselves.
a number Of wives often being In one hut
They cook their husbands food In their
huts or on the ground outside and bring IL
to the clubhouse. laying IL On the veranda
and calling to their husbands to come and
eat. Mr.. Dauncey says that 1t would be
death to a woman TO enter one of these
clubhouses. and that they are reserved ex-
clusively for the men. The houses are often
VI 64Cd% me " hht AhiEAA raj
ricks. starting from the ground and going
upward until they meet In the ridge Of the
roof. The entrance is a hole at the front
There are no windows and the houses are
built so protected with mats that they keep
out the mosquitoes.
Flat Life In New Guinea.
In other sections of the country the men
and women live together. on the apartment
house plan. In some places there are houses
500 feet long and % feet wide. containing
sixty families or more. Such a house would
be divided by little partitions into stalls or
pens running out to a central hall. so that
going through It would be like passing
through the stalls Of a COW stable. In each
stall a family has It's quarters. the women
doing their cooking inside and the smoke
finding its way out as Il can through the
roof. These New Guinea fats are very
dark. for the walls extend almost to the
floor on account Of the mosquitoes. ana
often there Is not more than two feet Of
wall before the roof begins. The roof, how
ever. may reach as high as thirty feet above
the floor. The material Of the houses Is
usually poles and grass. First a frame |
work Of poles is made. and then the ;hatch
Of grass or banana leaves is tied on.
New Guinea Babies.
The New Guinea natives are fond Of
their children. They treat them well and ,
are exceedingly affectionate. Mr.. Dauncey !
told me that In his ten years intercourse |
with the natives he had never seen a
father strike his child. and that mothers |
never whip their children. |
A queer thing is the Papuan cradle. 1t
is made of the fiber Of the banana woven |
in the shape of a bag. Into this
the baby Is dropped and the bag is then
hung to one of the poles Of the roof or TO
a tree and swung to sleep. II the mother
goes out she merely unhooks or unties the
string and sings the cradle on her back. |
carrying her baby about a. the ndian !
squaw does her papoose. |
Fisher@en and Farmers.
1t 10 rather remarkable that the New
Guinea savages have developed special
trades. On the south coast there are some
tribes which do nothing but fish and others
which devote themselves to farming. The |
farmers never fish. and the fishers do not
farm. The two tribes live close to each
other and exchange their respective prod |
ucta The farming Is largely done with |
sharp sticks. the men standing in q row |
and plunsing their sticks into the ground
ACotoay. diiu tuus pAyiHS w tuc bDi- |
The fishermen make their own canoes. |
of them gather shells and pearls. |
Pottery and rope making are other princi- |
pal industries. Not far from Port Moresby
. tribe lives which makes cooking vessels |
Of clay. drying them in the sun and baking !
them with fire. They then carry these YES
sells from place to place and sell them.
Land of Birds.
New Guinea has but few animals OF note.
The chief are wild pigs and small marsupi-
ais. including tree kangaroos. In birds the
country 10 wonderfully rich. There are 400
species of land BIRDS. and among
them many of most gorgeous plumage.
There are parrots and cockatoos Of oil
colors. and pigeons more splendid than our
l have seen New Guinea pigeons
a. big as hen turkeys. and as small as the
dove. The goura pigeon is the larg-
est. Its body is of a brilliant light blue and
Its neck has all the colors OF the opal. II
has . crest or egret OF tiny slaty blue feath-
ars running from the back of the head out