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H. Wilfrid Walker - Wanderings Among South Sea Savages
It was cloudy, but very close, and we passed through open grass country, bounded on each side by tall
forest, in which bird-life seemed plentiful, cockatoos and parrots making a great noise. Birds of paradise
were also calling out with their very noticeable and peculiar falsetto cry.
After going some distance we catechized the prisoners, and while an old man declared that there was a
large village ahead, the two women prisoners said that the track was only a hunting one and led to the
mountains.
The old man evidently wanted to get us away from his village, to enable his tribe to return, but the
women, not being so loyal, told us the truth, no doubt because they found the forced marching on a hot
day a little too much for them. We sat down for a consultation, but hearing a loud outcry in the rear, I
suddenly came across about a dozen of the now indignant police pelting the old man with darts made out
of a peculiar kind of grass, which grew around here. The old man, who was handcuffed, hopped high in
the air, uttering loud yells every time a dart hit him, so I imagined they hurt, and though I, too, felt much
annoyed, I had to put a stop to this cruel sport, when one of the aggrieved policemen cried out to me:
"Taubada (master), why you stop him get hurt? This fellow he ki-ki (eat) you if he get chance."
CHAPTER 10. The Return From Dobodura.
Horrible Fate of one of our Enemies - Collecting in Cannibal - Haunted Forest - I Shoot a new
Kingfisher, and a Bird of Paradise - Natives' Interest in Bird-Stuffing - Return Journey begun -
Tree-house in a Notu Village - Peacemaking Ceremonies - Notu Village described - Our Allies sentenced
for Cannibalism - Parting with Walsh and Clark.
We decided to return, and sent off a strong body of police in advance to surprise some of the surrounding
villages. On the way back we found the man who was brained by one of our carriers still breathing. He
was a ghastly sight, with his brains projecting out, and he was being eaten alive by swarms of red ants,
which almost hid his body and found their way into his eyes, ears and nose. By the convulsions that from
time to time shook the man's body, he was evidently still conscious, but could not possibly have lived for
more than a few hours at most, after our thus finding him. New Guinea, like most tropical countries, had
its full share of these pests (ants), some species of which actually make webs, and, by way of
supplementing the web itself, work leaves in.
Acland, who had been suffering all day long from bad fever, now collapsed and could walk no further,
but had to be carried in a hammock. When we got back to our old camping ground, I took an armed
guard of police and went in search of birds for my collection, in the adjoining forest, and shot a new
kingfisher (TANYSIPTERA) and a bird of paradise (PARADISEA INTERMEDIA). It was rather
exciting work, as one went warily through the thick growth, from whence might issue a spear any
minute, and I held on to my rifle all the time, except, of course, when I saw a bird, and then I made a
quick change to my shotgun, lest I should prove a case of the hunter hunted.
On my return I had a large crowd of carriers around me watching me skin my birds, while Arigita
explained everything to them in lordly fashion, only too pleased to get the chance of being listened to,
while he expounded to them his superior knowledge. What he told them I, of course, could not tell, but
he informed me that when I put the final stitch in the nostrils of the birds, my audience declared that I did
this to prevent the birds from breathing and so one day coming to life again. When the wise Arigita asked
them how this could be, since they had seen me take out the body and brains, they scoffed at him and
said that spirits would come inside the skins so that they could sing again.
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