A. New Guinea. This is anything but a native name; indeed, it is a name that no New Guinea men know anything about.
Just what occurred in Borneo, occurs here. There is no general name at all; neither one for the island itself, nor one for the population of it—no native name at least.
There is, however, a Malay one. The word Papua means frizzly-haired. Originally and, more properly, applied to occupants of the north-west coast, it has since been extended—for the purposes of Ethnology at least—to a whole family. Hence, the Papuan stock contains, not only the inhabitants of New Guinea, but those of the islands to the east, and south thereof—the Louisiade Archipelago, New Britain, New Ireland, New Hanover, Solomon’s Isles, New Hebrides, Loyalty Isles, and New Caledonia.
No part of the world is less known than these Papuan islands—the interior of New Guinea being as much a mystery as the interior of Africa. There are certain points, however, on which attention has been concentrated. Thus—
a. The western coast of New Guinea itself has been described, more or less incompletely, by the Dutch.
b. The south-eastern part, along with the islands of Torres Straits, has been surveyed by H.M.S. the Fly.
c. The Louisiade Archipelago, &c., by H.M.S. Rattlesnake.
d. The parts about Tanna, Mallicollo, and New Caledonia, by Captain Erskine.
The figures before us are from drawings made on the spot by Mr. Huxley, naturalist to the Rattlesnake, and as they were from the pencil of an anatomist as well as an artist they may be relied on as characteristic. The chief notices are from Mr. M‛Gillivray’s “Voyage of the Rattlesnake.”
The Louisiade houses (or huts) in their simplest form consist of a roof of palm-leaves on four wooden uprights, each of which pierces a round piece of wood. This prevents rats and vermin from finding their way upwards and into the dwelling.