Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-05-04


My husband asked where the
vases came from and was in
formed that spirits brought them
more years ago than there are
stars in the sky. Between cere-
monies they were kept buried
deep in the ground.
They must have been brought
TO Papua by some Chinese trad
ing junk but whether the traders
got value received in the form of
Papuan goods or were ship
wrecked on the shore to receive
the time-honored fate of cast
aways. of being robbed and killed
besides, in this case, eaten and
their heads stuck on a pole, will
never be known.
If the Papuans puzzled us. we
certainly puzzled them. The
natives asked us constantly why
we came from far away to hunt
such trivial and useless game as
butterflies and bugs. We always
told them the truth but they
never believed it. To them it was
a morbid curiosity. Some thought
we ate them secretly and cere-
moniously. When shown that we
preserved the specimens and took
them home with us, they became
convinced that there must be
some sort of magic in the bust
ness and spied on us in hope of
learning how it was done.
THE big island of Papua con.
tains more different tribes
than you could shake a spear at.
Most Of them talk languages so
different that they cannot under
stand each other without an in
terpreter. However. we heard
from the natives, and white old
timers confirmed IT, that there is
one universal tongue, understood
perfectly by every native, even
small children. AS might be
guessed this a language for
diplomatic purposes, but diplo-
macy in reverse because it can
not possibly be used for any pur-
pose except threats and insults
am told that it consists Of
about 30 outrageous nouns. a
score Of violent verbs and some
one hundred foul and abominable
adjectives. They say there is not
a decent word in the language.
When the women appoint an
ambassador to explain TO a neigh
boring tribe why they are declar-
ing war, he is expected to use
every single word there is in that
tongue at least once. The
gentleman who replies will also
exhaust the language More than
one native generously volunteered
to teach it to us. But we did
not see how it could be useful
as long as we retained the am
bition Of remaining all in one
piece.
Some headhunters are as care
ful in preserving their trophies
as we are with our insect spcCi-
mems. In the first place they
sever II with every vertebra of
the neck attached. The scalp is
then slit up the back and the
skull removed, II the victim was
a person Of no importance they
just stick the skull on a pole ami
let it 90 at that Some Of the
more slovenly tribes do no more,
even TO important skulls, when
they manage TO get one.
The more careful headhunters
after cleaning the skull and tho
entire skin and scalp. replace
them in their original positions.
A hole is cut in the roof of the
mouth through which the brain is
removed. The Papuans have no
suspicion that such thinking as
they do is performed inside their
heads.
However, they suspect that
this seemingly useless skullstuff-
ing must be for some purpose
and therefore when indulging in
long pig feasts. the brains are
eaten too. so as to be sure they
are not missing any quality that
might Turk there.
In preparing a head for their
indoor collections, some Papuans
place a large pebble or a nut in
the hollow of the skull, 10 rattle
impressively when the skull Is
used in a head dance Another
school Of thought believes that
skulls should be seen but not
heard and stuffs the cranial
cavity with cocoanut fibre. In
any case the mouth is usually
made to remain wide open by
plugging it with clay. The same
material is used to fill the eye
sockets which are decorated with
red abrus seeds. The counter
ance is lip-sticked, rouged and