O Henry - "The Trimmed Lamp"

Jane Andrews - "The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children"

George Gissing - "The Odd Women"

George Borrow - "The Romany Rye"

Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And in Borneo and the Philippines

H >> H. Wilfrid Walker >> Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And in Borneo and the Philippines




During the day I witnessed a very interesting ceremony, which I
take the liberty of describing in Monckton's own words, given in his
report to the Government. He says: "October 7th. Found that some of
the mountain people had been out to Notu and wished to make peace
with them. The Notu people had also ascertained that the Dobodura
had retreated into the large sago swamp, and were quite certain that
they had no danger to fear from them for some time to come. They
also said that after the police had departed they would very likely
be able to re-establish their ancient friendly relations with the
Dobodura. A peace-offering was brought from the mountain people,
which the Notu people asked me to receive for them. The ceremony was
strange to me, and had several peculiar features. Two minor chiefs
came to where I was sitting and sat down. About twenty men then
approached and drove their spears into the ground in a circle with
the butts all leaning inwards. Many of the spears had a small piece
broken off at the butt end. From these spears were then hung clubs,
spears and shields, and native masks and fighting ornaments. An old
chief then said they had given me their arms. Next they placed cloth,
fishing nets and spears and other native ornaments inside the circle,
and the same old chief said they had given me their property. After
this ten pigs, five male and five female, were brought and placed
inside the ring with a quantity of sago and a little other food. Then
followed cooking vessels full of cooked food. The old chief then said,
'We have given you all we have as a sign we are now the people of the
Government.' I gave them a good return present, and told them that
they were at liberty to take any articles they wanted or their pigs
back again, but this they absolutely refused to do, saying that it
would destroy the effect of what they had done. The female prisoners
were now sent back to Dobodura with a message to the Dobodura, that
I should return in a few months and make peace with them, should they
in the meantime refrain from murdering the coastal people, but should
they persist in their raiding I should return and handle them still
more severely." In return we gave them presents of axes, knives,
beads, tobacco, etc., which were laid down on the top of each pig.

Monckton very kindly presented Acland and myself with all the clubs,
native masks, "tapa" cloth and ornaments, and the pigs and other food
came in very useful for our police and carriers, as our rice supply
was getting low.

This was a very picturesque village, shaded by thousands of coconut
and betel nut palms and large spreading trees, among which was a very
fine tree, with very beautiful green and yellow variegated leaves
(ERYTHRINA sp.). There was also a great variety of DRACAENAS, striped
and spotted with green, crimson, white, pink and yellow.

In most of these villages there were many curious kinds of trophies --
crossed sticks, standing in the middle of the village, with a centre
pole carved and painted in various patterns, and with a fringe of
fibre placed near the top. Hanging on these sticks were the skulls
and jawbones of men, pigs and crocodiles. I went out in the afternoon
with gun and rifle, and saw several wallabies, but could not get a
shot at them on account of the tall grass.

In the evening the chiefs of the large Notu village who had in our
absence killed and eaten the two runaway carriers, visited us in
fear and trembling. Monckton told them they must give up to us the
actual murderers and send them up to the residency at Cape Nelson
(or Tufi) within the next three weeks. He did not ask for those
that ate them. Possibly one hundred or more partook of the feast,
and for this they could hardly be blamed, as, being cannibals, it
is quite natural that they should eat fresh meat when they got the
chance. Indeed, our own carriers could not understand why we would
not allow them to eat the bodies of those we had slain.

The next morning we five white men parted company, Walsh and Clark,
with the Mambare and their own police, returning to the north,
while Monckton, Acland and I went southward again to continue our
explorations in another direction.




Our Discovery of Flat-Footed Lake Dwellers.




CHAPTER 11

Our Discovery of Flat-Footed Lake Dwellers.

Rumours at Cape Nelson of a "Duckfooted" People in the Interior --
Conflicting Opinions -- Views of a Confirmed Sceptic -- Start of the
Expedition -- Magnificence of the Vegetation -- Friendliness of the
Barugas -- The "Orakaibas" (Criers of "Peace") -- Tree-huts eighty feet
from the ground-Loveliness of this part of the Jungle -- Description
of its Plants -- A Dry Season -- First Glimpse of Agai Ambu Huts --
Remarkable Scene on the Lake -- Flight of the Agai Ambu in Canoes --
Success at Last -- A Voluntary Surrender -- The Agai Ambu Flat-footed,
not Web-footed -- Sir Francis Winter's subsequent Visit and fuller
Description of these People -- Their Physical Appearance, Houses,
Canoes, Food, Speech and Customs -- My Account Resumed -- Making
Friends with the Agai Ambu -- A Country of Swamps -- Second Agai
Ambu Village -- Extraordinary Abundance and Variety of Water-fowl --
Strange Behaviour of an Agai Ambu Women -- Disposal of the Dead in
Mid-lake Food of the Agai Ambu -- Their Method of Catching Ducks
by Diving for them -- An Odd Experience -- Mosquitos and Fever --
Last View of Agai Ambu -- An Amusing FINALE.

Many were the wild and fantastic rumours we had heard at the Residency
at Cape Nelson, on the north-east coast of British New Guinea,
concerning a curious tribe of natives whose feet were reported to be
webbed like those of a duck, and who lived in a swamp a short way in
the interior, some distance to the north of us. I myself had at first
been inclined to sneer at these reports, but Monckton, the Resident
Magistrate, with his superior knowledge of the Papuans, as the natives
of New Guinea are called, was sure that there was some truth in the
reports, as the Papuan who has not come much in contact with the
white man is singularly truthful though guilty of exaggeration.

I knew this, but I had in mind the case of the Doriri tribe, who
lived in the interior a little to the south of us. These Doriri (who
had had the kindly forethought to send us word that they were coming
down to pay us a visit to eat us, for the Papuan, though a savage,
is often most suave and courteous and by no means lacking in humour),
were reported to us as having many tails, but needless to say when
we made some prisoners, we were scarcely disappointed to find that
the said tails protruded from the back of the head (in much the same
fashion as the Chinaman's pigtail); in this case each man had many
tails, which were fashioned by rolling layers of bark from a certain
tree -- closely allied, I believe to the "paper tree" of Australia --
round long strands of hair.

We three white men had many a long talk as to whether these
swamp-dwellers were worth going in search of, but I soon came round to
Monckton's way of thinking. Acland, alone, however, maintained to the
last that the whole thing was a myth, and jokingly said to Monckton:
"When you find these duck-footed people, you had better see that Walker
does not take them for birds, and shoot and skin a couple of specimens
of each sex and add them to his collection." (For my chief hobby in
this and many other countries all over the world consisted in adding
to my fine collections of birds and butterflies in the old country.)

As we three, with our twenty-five native police and four servant
boys, rowed up the Barigi River in our large government whaleboat,
on our way to search for these "duck-footed" people, I could not help
being struck with the very great beauty of the scene. Giant trees
laden with their burden of orchids, parasites and dangling lianas,
surrounded us on both sides, their wide-spreading branches forming
a leafy arcade far over our heads, while palms in infinite variety,
intermixed with all sorts of tropical forms of vegetation, and rare
ferns, grew thickly on the banks.

Some distance behind us came our large fleet of canoes, bearing our
bags of rice and over one hundred carriers, and as they paddled down
the dark green oily waters of this natural arcade, with much shouting
and the splashing of many paddles, it made a scene which is with me
yet and is never to be forgotten. As we proceeded, the river got more
narrow, and fallen trees from time to time obstructed our way. We at
length landed at a spot where we were met by a large number of the
Baruga tribe, who brought us several live pigs tied to poles, and
great quantities of sago, plantains and yams. They had expected us,
as we had camped in their country the previous night. They had been
"licked" into friendliness by Monckton, who less than a year ago (as
elsewhere mentioned) had sunk their canoes, and together with the aid
of the crocodiles, which swarm in this river, had annihilated a large
force of them. And now to show their friendliness they were prepared
to do us a good turn, by helping us to find these duck-footed people,
with whom (they told us) they were well acquainted.

Oyogoba, the chief of the Baruga tribe, came to meet us. He assured us
of the friendliness of his people, and himself offered to accompany
us. His arm had been broken in the encounter with Monckton and his
police, and Monckton had immediately afterwards set it himself. It
now seemed quite sound.

We soon resumed our journey, on foot, passing through very varied
country, plains covered with tall grass and bounded by forest,
through which at times we passed. At other times we had to force our
way through thick swamps in which the sago-palm abounded, from the
trunks of which the natives extract sago in great quantities.

About mid-day we arrived at a fair-sized village belonging to the
Baruga tribe. It was surrounded by a tall stockade of poles, and as
we entered it, the women sitting in their huts greeted us with their
incessant cries of "orakaiba, orakaiba" (peace). On this account the
natives of this part of New Guinea are generally termed "Orakaibas"
by other tribes.

The houses here seemed larger and better built than most Papuan houses
that I had hitherto seen, and there were many curious tree-houses
high up among the branches of some very large, trees in the village,
some being fully eighty feet from the ground. They had broad ladders
reaching up to them, and looked very curious and picturesque. These
ladders are made of long rattans from various climbing palms. These
rattans, of which there were three double strings, are twisted in
such a way as to support the pieces of wood which form the steps. In
one case a ladder led from the ground in the usual way to a house
built in a small tree about thirty feet from the ground, but a second
ladder connected this house with another one in a much larger tree
about eighty feet off the ground. I climbed the first ladder, but
the second one swayed too much.

These tree-houses axe built partly as look-out houses, from which the
approach of the enemy is discovered, and partly as vantage points
from which the natives hurl down spears at their opponents below
when attacked.

Resuming our journey, after a brief halt in this village, we soon
came to the Barigi River again, which we crossed, camping in a small
deserted village close by. Here I noticed several more tree-houses in
the larger trees. This had been a very hot day, even for New Guinea,
and I could not resist taking a most refreshing bathe in the river,
though I must confess I was glad to get out again, having rather a
dread of the crocodiles, which infest parts of this river, though
they were not nearly so numerous up here as in the lower reaches of
the river which we had traversed in the morning.

We were up the following morning before sunrise, and were all
much excited at the prospect before us of discovering this curious
tribe. This day would show whether or no our journey was to prove
fruitless. Soon after leaving the village we entered a dense forest,
the growth of which was wonderfully beautiful. Tall PANDANUS trees,
some of them supported by a hundred and more long stilted roots, which
rose many feet above our heads, reared their crowns of ribbon-like
leaves above even some of the giants of the forest. Palms of all shapes
and sizes, dwarfed, tall, slender and thick, surrounded us on every
side, and at least three different species of climbing palms scrambled
over the tallest trees. The tree trunks were hidden by climbing ferns
and by a white variegated fleshy-leafed POTHOS. Orchids, though not
numerous, were by no means scarce on the branches of some of the
larger trees, and were intermixed with many curious and beautiful
ferns. There were many large-leafed tropical plants somewhat resembling
the HELICONIAS and MARANTAS of tropical America.

Flowers were not very plentiful, but here and there the forest
would be literally ablaze with what is said to be the most showy
flowering creeper in the world, huge bunches of large flowers of so
vivid a scarlet that Monckton and I agreed no painting could do them
justice. It is sometimes known as the DALBERTIA, but its botanical name
is MUCUNA BENNETTI. It has been found impossible to introduce it into
cultivation. Among other flowers were some very large sweet-scented
CRINUM lilies and some very pretty pink flowering BEGONIAS, with their
leaves beautifully mottled with silver. Here and there we would notice
a variegated CROTON or pink-leafed DRACAENA, but these were uncommon.

As we proceeded, I noticed that in spite of the very dry weather
we had been having, the ground each moment became more moist, which
indicated that we were approaching the swamps we had heard about. It
was a rough track over fallen trees and dry streams, but before long
we passed along the banks of a creek full of stagnant water.

We at length left the forest and found ourselves in open country,
covered with reeds and rank grass, through which we slowly wended
our way. Suddenly, however, we halted, and looking through the
tall grass, saw some of the houses of the Agai Ambu tribe close
at hand. Down we all crouched, hiding ourselves among the grass,
while two of our Baruga guides, who speak the language of the Agai
Ambu, went forward to try and parley with them and induce them to be
friendly with us. We soon heard them yelling out to the Agai Ambu,
who yelled back in reply. This went on for some minutes, when the
Baruga men called out to us to come on.

Jumping up, we rushed forward through the grass and witnessed a
remarkable scene. In front of us was a lake thickly covered with
water-lilies, most of them long-stemmed and of a very beautiful blue,
with a yellow centre, and with large leaves, the edges of which were
covered with a kind of thorn; there were also some white ones with
yellow centre.

On the other side of the lake were several curious houses built on
long poles in the water, the houses themselves being a good height
above the water. The lake presented a scene of great confusion. The
inhabitants were fleeing away from us in their curious canoes, which,
unlike most Papuan canoes, had no outrigger whatever. Their paddles
also were peculiar, the blades being very broad. Close to us were
our two Baruga guides in a canoe with one of the Agai Ambu tribe,
who directly he saw us plunged into the lake and disappeared under
the tangled masses of water lilies.

He remained under some time, but on his coming to the surface again,
one of the Baruga men plunged in after him, and we witnessed an
exciting wrestling match in the water. The Baruga man was by far
the more powerful of the two, but he was no match for the almost
amphibious Agai Ambu, who slipped away from his grasp like an eel,
and swam away, with the Baruga man in close pursuit. All this time
a canoe full of the Agai Ambu was rapidly approaching to the rescue,
waving their paddles over their heads, and the Baruga man, seeing this,
climbed back into his canoe and paddled back to us.

Meanwhile the police had made a rush for a canoe which was close at
hand; but it at once upset, having no outrigger and being exceedingly
light and thin; it was, in fact, a species of canoe quite new to our
police. In any case they would not have had the slightest chance of
overtaking the fleet Agai Ambu in their own canoes. It looked very
much as if after all we were not to have the chance of verifying
the strange reports about the formation of these people. As a last
resource we sent over our two Baruga guides in a canoe to speak with
those of the tribe who had not fled. As the guides approached they
shouted out that we were friends, and that as we were friends of the
Baruga tribe, we must be friends of the Agai Ambu tribe as well.

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 were
much better developed than those of the calf. In the ordinary native
the skin on the loins is smooth and tight, and the anatomy of the body
is clearly discernible; but the Ahgai-ambo man had several folds of
thick skin or muscle across the loins, which concealed the outline
of his frame. On placing one of our natives, of the same height,
alongside the marsh man, we noticed that our native was about three
inches higher at the hips.

"I had a good view of our visitor, while he was standing sideways
towards me, and in figure and carriage he looked to me more ape-like
than any human being that I have seen. The woman, who was of middle
age, was much more slightly formed than the man, but her legs were
short and slender in proportion to her figure, which from the waist
to the knees was clothed in a wrapper of native cloth.

"The houses of the near village were built on piles, at a height of
about twelve feet from the surface of the water, but one house at the
far village must have been three or four feet more elevated. Their
canoes, which are small, long, and narrow, and have no outrigger, axe
hollowed out to a mere shell to give them buoyancy. Although the open
water was several feet deep, it was so full of aquatic plants that
a craft of any width, or drawing more than a few inches, would make
but slow progress through it. Needless to say that these craft, which
retain the round form of the log, are exceedingly unstable, but their
owners stand up in them and, pole them along without any difficulty.

"These people are very expert swimmers, and can glide through beds
of reeds or rushes, or over masses of floating vegetable matter,
with ease. They live on wild fowl, fish, sago and marsh plants,
and on vegetables procured from the Baruga in exchange for fish and
sago. They keep a few pigs on platforms built underneath or alongside
their houses. Their dead they place on small platforms among the reeds,
and cover the corpse over with a roof of rude matting. Their dialect
is almost the same as that of the Baruga. Probably their ancestors
at one time lived close to the swamp, and in order to escape from
their enemies were driven to seek a permanent refuge in it."

Thus it will be seen that Sir Francis was much impressed with these
people, and he heartily congratulated me upon our discovery.

To resume my personal account. We soon gave the man confidence
by presenting him with an axe, some calico and beads, and a small
looking-glass, which was held in front of him. He gazed in stupefied
wonderment at his own features so plainly depicted before him. He was
taken back to the other side, and soon returned with two more of his
tribe, who brought us a live pig, which they hauled out from a raised
flooring beneath one of their houses.

The country all round us seemed to be one large swamp, and we stood
upon a springy foundation of reeds and mud; except for these, we
should undoubtedly have soon sunk out of sight in the mud. As it was,
we stood in a foot of water most of the time, and in places we had
to wade through mud over our knees.

The lake swarmed with many kinds of curious water-birds, the most
common being a red-headed kind of plover; there was also a great
variety of duck and teal. The swamps were full of large spiders, which
crawled all over us; we had to keep continually brushing them off.

Farther down the lake we saw another small village, and we were
told that these two villages comprised the whole of this curious
tribe. Whether they axe the remnants of a once powerful tribe it
is impossible to say, but their position is well-nigh impregnable
in case they are ever attacked, as their houses are surrounded by
swamps and water on all sides, and no outsider could very well get
through the swamps to their villages. The only possible way to get
there would be to cross the water in their shell-like canoes, a feat
which no man of any other tribe would ever be able to manage.

Monckton thought that these swamps and lake were formed by an overflow
of the Musa River. This had been a phenomenally dry season for New
Guinea, so these swamps in an ordinary wet season must be under water
to the depth of many feet.

We camped close by on the borders of the forest amid a jungle of
rank luxuriant vegetation, over which hovered large and brilliant
butterflies, among them a very large metallic green and black species
(ORNITHOPTERA PRIAMUS) and a large one of a bright blue (PAPILIO
ULYSES). The same afternoon we three went out shooting on the lake. Two
of the Agai Ambu canoes were lashed together and a raft of split
bamboo put across them, and two Agai Ambu men punted and paddled us
about. Before starting we had first educated them up to the report
of our guns, and after a few shots they soon got over their fright.

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