The Warwickshire Herald. — 1889-11-07 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

BITS FROM BOOKS.  SPTIOTS.  It is not too much to say that nearly every action 'Yf a Papuan's life is regulated to some extent by superstition. He believes in ghosts, he believes in witchcraft, and he believes, until events occur to Phake his belief, in the sorcerers who profess to be able to raise the one and control the other. The number of spirits he believes in is quite enormous, as not only has his own tribe one complete lot to be propitiated or cursed, as occasion may demand, but every other tribe has also a duplicate set; and the white man of course has a new and awful species of which he professes to know nothing. In dealings with these people promises are broken, and carefully-laid pinta areupset in a moment by any slight contretenips .which may occur, as it is ascribed by them to the malignant influence of the white man's spirit. Much as they curse the white man's devil at times, I imagine have cursed theirs just as often, and with equal goodwill. The white man is held to be responsible for any accident which may happen to • illative while in his service, and the unfortunate stranger has to pay heavily, or trouble is the result. It happened to me long ago to be in want of several men who spoke the language and knew the people of Moresby Island. The Moresby Island people had murdered six Chinamen, and it was necessary to give them the chance of coming to terms before proceeding to extremities. At my request a chief in Hayter Island, called Peter by us, and six of his men consented. Three times they landed and held communication with the natives, On the first two occasions they were quite successful in their negotiations, as they brought me off some of the Chinamen's skulls and rifles which had been , seized. The third time, as bad luck would have it, one of our troublesome spirits, so Peter assured me, must come and interfere, with the result that one man was speared in the side and leg, and his friends got him off to the ship with difficulty. To make matters worse, a few days afterwards I landed Peter at his own village, and then he found that during his absence one of his daughters had died, and that his wife was ill. This also was laid to any charge, I suppose on the assumption that I should have kept this white man's devil in better order, and Peter had to be heavily paid before he would be appeased. It I had not done so, it might have had the effect of making a previously friendly people hostile to us. Of course all the relations of the wounded man insisted on payment, as that misfortune was also laid at my door. This will serve to give a slight idea of the difficulties to be contended with when superstition is thrown into the scale. A curious instance came under my notice not long ago of the sacred importance attached to the heavy grass petticoat worn by the women. A party of 10 Slade Island men started on • trading voyage to a village in Milne Bay, on the mainland of New Guinea. They had often traded there before, and anticipated no danger. They had started at an inauspicious time, however, as an old woman, the night previous to their departure, had dreamed a dream, and warned them against going. On their arrival at Milne Bay they were received in an apparently friendly manner; but at a given signal, the whole party, with the exception of one young man and a little boy, were treacherously tomahawked. The young man escaped, and was subsequently taken to his home by me, after he had been undergoing for a week the process of fattening for eating. The boy, however, was to have been killed with the others, in spite of the prayers and tears of the women. When they found that these were of no avail, they took off their Petticoats an flung them over the boy's body, and there was not a man there who would have dared to so much as touch him while under this protection. As soon as the first excitement of the men had worn off, and the women ventured to resume their clothes, it was decided that the boy should be adopted by the tribe.—Sketches from tny Verandah in New Guinea. By Hugh Hastings Romily.