The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-03-21
SCIENTISTS BRAVE
DEATH AND DISEASE
Expedition Finds Race of Pigmies
After Month of HaIdships in
New Guinea.

TOKYO, Japan, March 21.-Details
have just been received here OF the
hardships OF "a British expedition in
Dutch New Guinea, which for months
past has ben engaged in an apparent
ly hopeless attempt 10 reach the great
interior snow range.
Writing from the British camp al
Parimau, on the Upper Mimika river
one OF the explorers says:
"A climate hat, steamy and un-
healthy never varying more than rs
degrees Fahrenheit night or day, win
ter or summer; sickness and disease
rampant and death the rule; heavy
rams and storms all the year round,
hardly day or night passing without
downpour; and during the so-callcd
wet season, une-September. inces-
SAINT rain night and day, and in con-
sequence heavy floods; that is Dutch
New Guinea as we found II.
The jungle is virgin, never before
having been trodden by man; TO its
hidden depths the natives are COM
plete strangers; the pigmies from the
hill shun IL and the natives from the
low lands fear IL and have no desire
To probe it's dark mysteries 1t Is the
haunt OF all creeping things, frour
the deadly pun adder TO the python.
Noxious intects abound and leeches
swarm on the saturated, moss-riddeu
trees and underground Everything
decaying; no air seems to circulate
there, and what little there Is is fetid
and sitting.
Dismal, dark, dripping-this is the
q nd
have been trying TO make some i'm
preston. IL only 10 cut a path"
In another letter Dr. Eric Marshall
gives the following description of the
little known people In this land OF
horrors.
Woman is relegated to an inferior
position. She cuts the firewood,
brings in the sago from the swamps
and paddles the canoes, occasionally
proving her skill as q warrior. The.
tailoring department does not worry
her much. she being usually content
with a strip of bark cloth When a
woman dies they may, If she is popu-
lar or valuable. mourn and wall for
her the best part of a day, burying
her the same day in a shallow grave,
which they will avoid trampling ON
for about "a hours. The bereaved
husband takes another wife as soon
as she is procurable The men pre-.
dominate, SO most OF them have to be
content with ones wife. .N- 49,
I'm the foothills OF the mountains
we have discovered pigmies averaging
4 feet inches to feet inches In
height, wild. shy, treacherous little
creatures. They wander over the
heavy Jungle-clad hills and mountains,
living on roots hunting the wallaby
pig and cassowary and fishing In the
mountain torrents. They dwell in the
rudest Kind OF lean-to huts, OF
branches and fan palms, with no reg
ular villages, but move from district
to district in search OF food.
The only metal tool they possess
ed was a small wedge-shaped piece OF
iron, inserted into a wooden handle
and used as an AK. With this the 20
acre clearing is made. None but those
who have worked and toiled I'm this
dense jungle can really appreciate the
perseverance and patience necessary
TO accomplish this. for many OF the
trees are from II TO 10 feet in circum-
ference.
This piece OF iron was traded up
from the coast natives and probably
cost the pigmies at least one woman"