We went ashore about eight o’clock the following morning and stayed till about four in the afternoon. We measured half a dozen men, and made records of their hair, eyes, skin, ears, etc. Seligmann tested the tactile sensibility of one or two natives, and got some interesting results. Ray gave a tune on the phonograph, and got some young people to sing a hymn on a blank cylinder. Wilkin took some photographs.
We saw the whole process of making pots except the baking in a wood fire. None of us had seen the manufacture of handmade pottery before, and we were consequently much interested in it. Delena and Yule Island are the most northerly, or westerly, points at which pottery is made along this coast of British New Guinea. The pots are made of three shapes. The whole is done with clay, sand, water, a board on which the clay is mixed, a wooden beater, a stone, and a shell; no wheel is employed, but the pot is supported in an old broken pot and can thus be easily turned round. The women are very dexterous in using their hands and fingers, and they can make several pots in a day. The people have not much to trade with, and we did not see any decorated bamboo tobacco pipes.
What interested me most was a child’s toy throwing-spear. It consists of a short, thin reed, in one end of which is inserted the mid-rib of a palm leaflet, to represent the blade or point; but the real interest consists in the fact that it is thrown by means of a short piece of string, one end of which is knotted and then passed twice round its shaft; the other end is passed twice round the index finger. The reed is held between the thumb and other fingers, with the index finger extended; when the spear is cast the string remains in the hand.
The use of a cord to increase the distance to which a throwing-spear or javelin can be hurled is an ancient, though not a common contrivance. The Greek and Roman soldiers employed a strap (ἀγκύλη or amentum), which was secured to about the middle of a javelin to aid them in giving it force or aim. In this case the strap left the hand of the thrower.
The only examples of this device I can find among recent peoples are in the Southern New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and Loyalty Islands. Captain Cook was the first to describe the practice, but it has been several times recorded since the great navigator’s day. The short cord employed by these Melanesians is knotted at one end and has a loop at the other for the insertion of the tip of the forefinger of the right hand. The Maori, however, used a long-handled whip, kotaha, for hurling javelins.
Rigid wooden spear-throwers, or, as they are generally termed, throwing-sticks, are more widely distributed. They occur all over Australia, and the Cape York variety was borrowed by the Western Islanders of Torres Straits. Strangely enough, in German New Guinea a distinct type of throwing-stick occurs sporadically. Another form of throwing-stick occurs in America among the Eskimo and among the Conibos and Purus of the Upper Amazon, and formerly among the ancient Mexicans.
This child’s toy may yet prove to be a link in the chain of evidence of race migration.
These people also make very complicated string puzzles (cat’s cradle); indeed, this amusement is widely spread in this part of the world.
There was great excitement in the afternoon over the catching of five goats, one of whom was a full-grown “billy.” These belonged to Mr. Dauncey, and we had to take them to another mission station. What with the goats, ourselves, other passengers, our gear, bananas, and other food, we had a pretty good boatload on our return to the schooner.
Soon after our arrival at Thursday Island we met Mr. Dauncey, who was there on his way home on furlough; the only other time I had seen him was also at Thursday Island, ten years previously, when he had just arrived to commence his career as a missionary. Mr. Dauncey kindly said that when I went to Delena I could take some “curios” that were lying on his verandah. I did not forget his offer, and brought away with me three shields, a number of small masks from the Papuan Gulf, and, best of all, a sorcerer’s kit, which consisted of a strongly-made round cane basket, about a foot in diameter and ten inches in height, which was lined with the cloth-like spathe of the coconut-palm leaf. It contained a cooking-pot, uro or keke, that from its appearance evidently came from Boera, inside which were the following objects:—