. The cruise of the Marchesa to Kamschatka & New Guinea : with notices of Formosa, Liu-Kiu, and various islands of the Malay archipelago. Marchesa (Schooner yacht); Natural history; Natural history. 286 NEIF GUINEA. [chap. of the houses at Sarauiidibu. Among the Papuans suiging and dancing are favourite amusements, and ahnost any event, joyful or sorrowful, important or trivial, serves as an excuse to indulge in them. The great feasts are for the completion of a korowaar, or for the successive steps in the carving of one of the great images of the idol- house—the Mon or ancestors. In these
. The cruise of the Marchesa to Kamschatka & New Guinea : with notices of Formosa, Liu-Kiu, and various islands of the Malay archipelago. Marchesa (Schooner yacht); Natural history; Natural history. 286 NEIF GUINEA. [chap. of the houses at Sarauiidibu. Among the Papuans suiging and dancing are favourite amusements, and ahnost any event, joyful or sorrowful, important or trivial, serves as an excuse to indulge in them. The great feasts are for the completion of a korowaar, or for the successive steps in the carving of one of the great images of the idol- house—the Mon or ancestors. In these cases dancing and singing are kept up the whole night through for se^'eral successive days—the performers rest- ing during the day and recommencing at sunset. We had no opportunity of seeing a feast of this nature, but Mr. Van Hasselt told us that a barn is often specially built on shore for the purpose. The men sit apart from the women, much decorated with coloured leaves and flowers of the scarlet hibiscus, which are tucked under their armlets and necklaces, and affixed to their mop-like hair by bamboo hair- pins. The masters of the ceremony are the Maiiibris or "champions" —men who have distinguished themselves in the ever-recurring intertribal wars. Sago, sagueir, tobacco, and gambler are provided, and the entertainment only ceases with the dawn. The singing is monotonous in the extreme, and the wooden drums are beaten without cessation. These, combined with the dancing, which is so \'iolent as nearly to shake the house down, produce a terrific noise —all the more pleasing to a Papuan, as he knows it to be most effective in guarding him from the evil influence of the Manuen. In the lesser feasts there is no dancing, the entertainment being confined to singing, with the usual drum accompaniment. Whatever may be the case in Eastern New G-uinea, the woman is little more than the slave of the man among the Nufoor Please note that these im
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