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H. Wilfrid Walker - Wanderings Among South Sea Savages
We held up various tempting trade goods, including a calico known as Turkey-red, bottles of beads, etc.
This and a long conversation with the Baruga men seemed to carry some weight with them, for the
Baruga soon returned with one of their number, who turned round in the canoe with his arms outstretched
to his friends and cried or rather chanted, in a sobbing voice, what sounded like a very weird song, which
seemed quite in keeping with the mournful surroundings and lonely life of these people.
This weird song, heard under such circumstances, quite thrilled me, and wild and savage though the
singer was, the song appealed to me more than any other song has ever done. It looked as if he might be a
ne'er-do-weel or an idiot whom his friends could afford to experiment with before taking the risk of
coming over themselves, but his song was no doubt a farewell to his friends, whom he possibly never
expected to see again.
He certainly looked horribly frightened as he stepped out of the canoe. We at once saw that there was
some truth in the reports about the physical formation of these people, although there had been
exaggeration in the descriptions of their feet as "webbed." There was, between the toes, an epidermal
growth more distinct than in the case of other peoples, though not so conspicuous as to permit of the
epithet "half-webbed," much less "webbed," being applied to them. The most noticeable difference was
that their legs below the knee were distinctly shorter than those of the ordinary Papuan, and that their feet
seemed much broader and shorter and very flat, so that altogether they presented a most extraordinary
appearance. The Agai Ambu hardly ever walk on dry land, and their feet bleed if they attempt to do so.
They appeared to be slightly bowlegged and walk with a mincing gait, lifting their feet straight up, as if
they were pulling them out of the mud.
Sir Francis Winter, the acting Governor of British New Guinea, was so interested in our discovery, that
he himself made another expedition with Monckton to see these people, while I was still in New Guinea.
On his return I stayed with him for some time at Government House, Port Moresby, and he gave me a
copy of his report on the Agai Ambu, which explains the curious physical formation of these people
better than I could do.
He says: "On the other side of this mere, and close to a bed of reeds and flags, was a little village of the
small Ahgai-ambo tribe, and about three-quarters of a mile off was a second village. After much shouting
our Baruga followers induced two men and a woman to come across to us from the nearest village. Each
came in a small canoe, which, standing up, they propelled with a long pole. One man and the woman
ventured on shore to where we were standing.
"The Ahgai-ambo have for a period that extends beyond native traditions lived in this swamp. At one
time they were fairly numerous, but a few years ago some epidemic reduced them to about forty. They
never leave their morass, and the Baruga assured us that they are not able to walk properly on hard
ground, and that their feet soon bleed if they try to do so. The man that came on shore was for a native
middle-aged. He would have been a fair-sized native, had his body from the hips downward been
proportionate to the upper part of his frame. He had a good chest and, for a native, a thick neck; and his
arms matched his trunk. His buttocks and thighs were disproportionately small, and his legs still more so.
His feet were short and broad, and very thin and flat, with, for a native, weak-looking toes. This last
feature was still more noticeable in the woman, whose toes were long and slight and stood out rigidly
from the foot as though they possessed no joints. The feet of both the man and the woman seemed to rest
on the ground something as wooden feet would do. The skin above the knees of the man was in loose
folds, and the sinews and muscles around the knee were not well developed. The muscles of the shin
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