The Mafulu: Mountain People of British New Guinea

by Robert Wood Williamson

A boy will often carry in a small bag (this does not refer to the special small charm bag already described) some pieces of wood and stone, and will rub a piece of tobacco between two of these, and send this tobacco to the girl of his choice through a female relative of hers or some other friend; and he believes that in some mysterious way this will draw her heart towards him, and make her accept him. The pieces of wood and stone need not be of any particular kind; but he will have carried them for a considerable time, until they have, as he thinks, acquired the specific odour of his body; and it is then that they have obtained their special power. It is impossible to induce a boy to part with a piece of wood or stone which has been so seasoned by time, and would take long to replace. Sometimes a boy will acquire these things by purchase from a magic man, who professes to be able to impart to them a more effective power.

A proposal of marriage is usually made by the boy through some female relative of the girl, or other suitable person, and not directly by him to the girl herself.

Another custom may be mentioned here, though it only relates to a man who is already married, but wants another wife or wives. In clearing the bush for yam gardens it is usual, as regards the smaller trees, to cut away the side branches only, leaving the main trunks for posts up which the yams will climb; but the man in question will in the case of one (only one) of these smaller trees leave uncut one, two, or three of the upper branches, the number so left being the number of the wives he desires; and everyone understands its meaning.

As regards the relationship of unmarried boys and girls generally, they are allowed to associate together, without any special precautions to prevent misconduct, and a good deal of general immorality exists.

The marriage ceremony, following a parental betrothal, or with parental acquiescence, is a very informal matter, and in fact both the bargaining for the wife and the ceremony of the marriage are in striking contrast to the elaborate system of bargaining and mock raiding by the girl’s family, and the wedding ceremonies, which are adopted in Mekeo. A day is fixed for the marriage, and on that day the boy goes to the house of the girl’s parents, after which he and she and her parents go to the house of the boy’s parents, and the girl is paid for then and there. After this the young people immediately live together as a married couple in the house of either his or her parents, until he has been able to build a house for himself. Neither are there any special ceremonies in connection with the fixing of the price. This is generally very small. Dogs’ teeth, pearl shell, necklaces, adzes, etc., are the usual things in which it is paid; but there is always a pig, which has been killed under, or on the site of, the grave platform above referred to. The price, in fact, depends upon the position and wealth of the girl’s parents, except that there is always only one pig. The price is paid to the father of the girl, or, if dead, to her eldest brother or other nearest male paternal relative.

A runaway marriage is still simpler. The boy has proposed to the girl through her friend, and she has consented; and they simply run off into the bush together, and remain in the bush, or the gardens, or a distant village, until the boy’s friends have succeeded in propitiating the girl’s father, and the price has been paid; and then the couple return to the village.

After marriage, the husband and wife are not as a rule faithful to each other, the marriage tie being only slight. Adultery on the part of the wife, but not of the husband, is regarded as a serious offence, if discovered. The injured husband will beat the guilty wife, and is entitled to kill the man with whom she has misconducted herself, and will usually do so; though nowadays he often dares not do so in districts where he fears Government punishment. Sometimes he will be content if the adulterer pays him a big price, say a pig; and this compensation is now commonly accepted in districts where the husband dares not kill. In either case, the husband generally keeps the wife.

Formal divorce or separation does not exist. A husband who wants to get rid of his wife will make her life so miserable that she runs away from him. But more usually the separation originates with the wife, who, not liking or being tired of her husband, or being in love elsewhere, will run away and elope altogether with another man. In such a case, the husband may retaliate on that other man in the way already mentioned; but that is rather the method adopted in cases of incidental adultery, and as a rule, when the wife actually elopes, she and her paramour go off to some other community, and the husband submits to the loss. He will, however, claim from the wife’s people the price which he paid for her on his marriage. This is sometimes paid, but not always; and, as the wife almost always belongs to another clan, and generally to another community, the refusal to pay this claim is one of the frequent causes of fighting, the members of the husband’s clan, and often the whole community, joining him in a punitive expedition.

When a man dies, or at all events after the removal by the widow of her mourning, she goes back to her own people, generally taking with her any of their young children who are then living in the house. There is no devolution of the wife to the husband’s brother, or anything of that nature. Nor, in case of the death of the wife, does the husband marry her sister.

Speaking of the people generally, it may certainly be said that sexual morality among men, women, boys and girls is very low; and there is no punishment for immorality, except as above stated.