We reached Inawi at noon, and found there was to be a large gathering of the Sacred Heart Missioners to celebrate an anniversary of the founding of their mission at Inawi. After lunch Wilkin and I went to the village, which consists of one long street, with three rows of houses on each side, and a population of some four hundred people.
There are several different types of houses here. The chief’s house is a picturesque pile-dwelling, built in the form of a cross, and adorned with long fringes of grass and carved and painted boards; from one of the latter, hanging in front of the house, depended a mask. Each chief in the Mekeo district builds a marea, and has his own designs on it, which no one may copy, as this would constitute a valid reason for a quarrel. The chief only has a right to hang a painted board in front of his house; it is, in fact, a sign of chieftainship, since when a chief is appointed he receives a board at the same time.
In the Mekeo district there appear to be two main divisions of family groups, each of which has its chief. I have more than once alluded to a dual division of a community in this part of the world, but here it seems to have been made the basis of a higher social development than has been hitherto recorded in New Guinea. The chief of one division is the war, or administrative chief; the other headman is afu (or taboo) chief. The office of the latter is hereditary.
A somewhat similar division of function has occurred elsewhere. To take two examples only: in ancient Gaul there were war chiefs and peace chiefs; the sachem of certain North American aboriginees was a peace chief. It is not improbable that in the afu chieftainship we have the commencement of a priestly dynasty after the order of Melchisedek, but at the Papuan stage of culture the secret of his power is probably a magical control over harvests rather than the authority due to purely religious functions. The mage has not yet become a priest.
On December 6th, 1897, the afu chief of Inawi put afu (taboo) on the coconuts and areca nuts, as these crops were failing in his district. Brother Alexis, who happened to be there, described the ceremony to me.
A small feast was made consisting of five pigs, five cassowaries, and plenty of native food, i.e. yams, sweet potatoes, taro, bananas, etc.; at about five o’clock Brother Alexis was invited to a place of honour on the marea, and one pig, one cassowary ham, and two banana leaves of native food were given him. The Afu chief of the village then made a speech proclaiming afu, stating that the coconuts and areca nuts would run short if this were not done. A piece of cassowary and pig meat with native food was placed in each person’s oro, or cooking-pot, and then the afu was planted. This consisted of three bamboos, to the lower part of each was tied a leaf of the sago palm, and coconuts were tied to the bamboos. The bamboos were erected, grouped like a “Prince of Wales” feathers, to the noise of conch shells and a wailing shout sounding like a siren. So far as I could discover, the bull-roarer is not known in this district. Leafy fringes, like women’s petticoats, were put round the supports of the bamboos. (This afu still remained on the occasion of our visit, except that the central bamboo had disappeared.) In the evening there was a dance, and fifteen coconuts and a bunch of areca nuts were given Brother Alexis.
For the three days following the ceremony the nuts might be taken, but on the third day a small feast was held, and thenceforth no nuts could be picked.
Fig. 28. Afu, or Taboo Signal, at Inawi
Another family than that to which the afu chief belongs (there seem to be only these two divisions or family groups in the village) has the responsibility of seeing that the afu is observed, and some fourteen or fifteen men of this group, called fulaari, form a sort of constabulary. Every evening they go round the village armed with clubs, and disguised either in masks similar to that which was hanging up before the chief’s house, or they were so covered with leaves as to be unrecognisable. At Waima all the enforcers (kaivakuku) of a taboo wear masks ([Pl. XXI., B, p. 256]); at Inawa and Veifaa they paint the face and cover up part of the body, but they sometimes wear masks; at Aipiana they cover over the whole body with leaves. In the Gulf district there are several important ceremonies at which masks are employed; in the Mekeo district this custom is in the various stages of attenuation and disappearance.