The Mafulu: Mountain People of British New Guinea

by Robert Wood Williamson

Hunting.

This is engaged in more or less all the year round, especially as regards wild pigs when wanted for village killing. The animals chiefly hunted are pigs, kangaroos, wallabies, the “Macgregor bear,”[1] large snakes, cassowaries and other birds.

The hunting weapons and contrivances used are spears, bows and arrows, nets and traps; but adzes and clubs are used in connection with net hunting. The spears are those used for war. The bows and arrows employed for hunting animals and cassowaries are also the same as those used for war; but these are not much used. For bird-shooting (excluding cassowary-shooting) they generally use arrows ([Plate 73, Fig. 5]) the points of which are made of four rather fine pieces of bamboo cane, closely bound together at the place of insertion into the reed shaft, and also bound together further down, but with a piece of stick or some other material inserted between them inside this second binding, so as to keep them a little apart and make them spread outwards, thus producing a four-pronged point. The arrows vary in length from 5 to 6 or 7 feet, and their points vary from 4 to 10 inches. The adzes and clubs are the same as those used for war.

The people generally hunt in large parties for pigs (hunted with either spears or nets), kangaroos and wallabies (hunted with nets only), and Macgregor bears, cassowaries, and big snakes (hunted with spears only). The hunters may be members of a single village or of a whole community. They generally return home on the same day, except when hunting the Macgregor bear, which is only found on the tops of high mountains, and so requires a longer expedition. They usually take out with them large numbers of young boys, who are not armed, and do not take part in the actual killing, but who, when the party reaches the hunting ground, spread out in the bush, and so find the animals. While doing this the boys bark like dogs. Sometimes dogs are taken instead, but this is unusual, as they have not many dogs.

A preliminary ceremony is performed by a person whose special duty it is, and who, I think, is usually the pig-killer. He takes a particular kind of fragrant grass, makes an incantation over it, rubs it on the noses of the dogs (if there are any),[2] and then ties it in several portions to the meshes of the net to be used. If there are dogs, but no net, then, after rubbing the dogs’ noses, he throws the grass away. If there is a net, but no clogs, then, after making the incantation, he ties the grass on to the net as above mentioned. This appears to be the only ceremony in connection with hunting; and there is no food or other taboo associated with it, but some of the charms worn are intended to give success in hunting.

In spear hunting, when children and not dogs are employed, the children shout as soon as the animal has been found, and then retreat; and, when the animal has been found by either children or dogs, the hunting men attack it with their spears, if possible surrounding it.

In net hunting, which of course can only be adopted in fairly open spaces, the hunters place their net by means of pole supports in the form of a crescent, perhaps as much as 50 or 60 yards long, this length, however, requiring several nets put end to end together, and 2 or 3 feet high. The net is generally put across the base of a narrow ravine, or across a narrow ridge, these being the routes along which the animals usually travel. The children or dogs search for the animal, as in spear hunting; and when it is found, most of the hunters place themselves in a crescent-shaped formation behind the animal, so that it is between them and the net, and then gradually close in upon it, and so drive it into the net. Behind the net are other hunters, more or less hidden, who kill the animal with club or adze when it is caught in the net. They sometimes use spears in the event of an animal jumping over the net, and so trying to escape; though in net hunting the spears are more especially carried for purposes of self-defence in case of an attack by the animal.

There is always an enormous amount of shouting all through the hunt. When the animal has been caught, they generally kill it then and there, except as regards pigs required alive for village ceremony, and which are disabled, but not killed. The huntings, except when pigs are specially required, are usually general; and when any sort of animal has been killed the hunters are content. They surround the beast, and make three loud shouting screams, by which the people of the village or community know, not only that an animal has been killed, but also what the animal is. It is then brought home, and eaten by the whole village, if the hunt be a village hunt, or by the community, if it be a community hunt.

Individual hunting, in which I include hunts by parties of two or three, is also common. Solitary hunters are generally only searching for birds (not cassowaries); but parties of two or three will go after larger game, such as pigs, cassowaries, etc. Such parties hunt the larger game with spears, clubs and adzes, and shoot the birds, other than cassowaries, with bows and arrows. They kill their victims as they can, and bring them home; and they, and probably some of their friends, eat them.

Trap hunting is much engaged in by single individuals. A common form of trap used for pigs is a round hole about 6 feet deep and 2 feet in diameter, which is dug in the ground anywhere in the usual tracks of the pigs, and is covered over with rotten wood, upon which grass is spread; and into this hole the pig falls and cannot get out. The maker of the hole does not necessarily stay by it, but will visit it from time to time in the hope of having caught a pig. Small tree-climbing animals are often caught by a plan based upon the inclination of an animal, seeing a continuous line, to go along it. A little pathway of sticks is laid along the ground, commencing near a suitable tree, and carried up to the base of that tree, and then taken up the trunk, and along a branch, on which it terminates, the parts upon the tree being bound to it with cane. At the branch termination of this path is either a noose trap, made out of a piece of native string tied at one end to the branch, and having at the other end a running noose in which the animal is caught, or a very primitive baitless framework trap, so made that the animal, having once got into it, cannot get out again. Or instead of a trap, the man will erect a small rough platform upon the same tree, upon which platform he waits, perhaps all night, until the animal comes, and then shoots it with his bow and arrow. Another form of trap for small animals is a sort of alley along the ground, fenced in on each side by a palisading of sticks, and having at its end a heavy overhanging piece of wood, supported by an easily moved piece of stick, which the animal, after passing along the alley, disturbs, so bringing down the piece of wood on to the top of it; this trap also has no bait. Large snakes are caught in nooses attached to the ground or hanging from trees.

Birds of all kinds, except cassowaries, are killed with bows and arrows. There is also a method of killing certain kinds of birds of paradise which dance on branches of trees, and certain other kinds and bower birds, which dance on the ground,[3] by means of nooses as above described, these being tied to the branch of the tree, or, in the case of ground nooses, tied to a stick or something in the ground. The natives know the spots where the birds are dancing, and place the noose traps there. Another method of killing birds is adopted on narrow forest-covered ridges of the mountains. An open space or passage about 2 or 3 yards wide is cut in the bush, across the ridge; and across this passage are suspended three parallel nets, the inner or central one being of a close and impassable mesh, and the two outer ones having a mesh so far open that a bird striking against it can get through. These nets are made of very fine material, and so are not easily seen, especially as they are more or less in shade from the trees on each side of the passage. A bird flying from the valley on either side towards the ridge is attracted by this open passage, and flies into and along it; it strikes against one of the more open outer nets, and gets through it, but is confused and bewildered, and so is easily stopped by the central close-meshed net, where it is shot with bow and arrow.