The girls in these ordinary dances were not specially decorated, at all events in comparison with the men.
During our stay at Bulaa, Ray gave several phonograph demonstrations and recorded some of the local songs. The natives were never tired of listening to the machine, and fully appreciated singing into it, and were very delighted at hearing their songs repeated by it. Altogether we had a very pleasant and profitable trip to this district.
We left Bulaa on June 15th about 9 a.m., and had a fine sail to Kăpăkăpă, arriving there at 12.30. All of us went to call on Dr. and Mrs. Lawes at Vatorata in the afternoon, and received, as before, a kindly welcome. Had afternoon tea, and then on to a small neighbouring Ikoro village of Tagama Keketo, but there was not much to be done there. We saw here a tame white cockatoo, fastened by the leg to a ring chipped out of a coconut which slid along a horizontal pole; subsequently we found this was frequently done in New Guinea. As I have previously stated, the natives are very fond of decorating themselves with feathers, and they wear great bunches of white cockatoo feathers in their hair when dancing. These unfortunate tame cockatoos are periodically plucked to supply feathers for these occasions. After dinner, Ray exhibited the phonograph in the schoolhouse to the students, and continued his philological studies.
We got up early next morning, and Seligmann, Wilkin, and I went to breakfast with Mr. English. We saw his station, which is placed on a hill, and all around are thriving plantations of economic plants that he has introduced into the district, such as coffee, sisal agave, and rubber; the makimaki rubber has been named Ficus rigo by Mr. Bailey, the Queensland botanist.
Then we walked to Gomoridobo, where Wilkin took some photographs, one of which was of a man carving a post for their new dubu. We bought a few things, and I obtained two samples of hair; even here the wavy hair occasionally occurs, and there is a yellowish and brownish tinge in the hair at its tips, especially in young children. The wavy hair proves that there has been racial mixture at least five miles from the coast, or more probably a mingling with coast people, who must have been of mixed origin when they arrived.
Got back to Vatorata at 11.15, and shortly afterwards Dr. Lawes drove us down to Kăpăkăpă, and after a pleasant sail we reached Port Moresby at sunset.
CHAPTER XVI
PORT MORESBY AND THE ASTROLABE RANGE
I have as yet said very little about Port Moresby. It is a commodious bay with an inner portion (Fairfax Harbour), which is land-locked. The double bay is surrounded by thinly wooded hills, and when these are brightened in places by the rising sun the effect is very beautiful. In full sunlight during the time we were there, there was generally a haze which greatly diminished the interest of the scene, but in the evening, especially a cloudy one, the hills again stood out clearly.
The small township lies on the north side of the neck of the promontory that forms the eastern limit of the bay; about a mile and a half off is the solitary Government House, and about half a mile beyond this again is the Mission Station. On the shore, below the hill on which the Mission stands, is the large stilted village commonly known as Hanuabada; off this is the rocky isle of Elevera, with its village of similar amphibious pile-dwellings, for at high tide they are completely surrounded by water.