of the feet or an evolutionary march—almost invariably goes, but
rarely singing. All sorts of jingling sounds also are music to the ear,
especially the clattering in time of strings of beans in their dry shells,
and so these and other rattles are found attached to the drum,
leg-bands and many of the utensils, implements and weapons.
Nearly all Papuan houses are built in Malay fashion on piles, and this not only on the coast but on the hillsides. In the north, the east and south-west of the island immense communal houses (morong) are met with. Some of these are between 500 and 700 ft. in length, with a rounded, boat-shaped roof thatched with palm-branches, and looking inside, when undivided, like dark Houses. tunnels. In some districts the natives live together in one of these giant structures, which are divided into compartments. Communal dwellings on a much smaller scale occur at Meroka, east of the Astrolabe mountains. As a rule elsewhere each family has its independent dwelling. On the north coast the houses are not built on piles; the walls, of bamboo or palm branches, are very low, and the projecting roof nearly reaches the ground; a barrier at the entrance keeps out pigs and dogs. A sort of table or bench stands outside, used by the men only, for meals and for the subsequent siesta. In east New Guinea sometimes the houses are two-storeyed, the lower part being used for stores. The ordinary house is 60 to 70 ft. long with a passage down the centre, and stands on a platform or veranda raised on piles, with the ridge-pole projecting considerably at the gables so that the roof may cover it at each end. Under this shade the inmates spend much of their time; here their meals, which are cooked on the ground beneath the house, are served. The furniture consists of earthen bowls, drinking-cups, wooden neck-rests, spoons, &c., artistically carved, mats, plaited baskets and boxes. The pottery is moulded and fire-baked. In a few districts villages are built at a short distance off the shore, as a protection against raids by the inland tribes. The interior villages are frequently situated on hill crests, or on top of steep-faced rocks as difficult of access as possible, whence a clear view all round can be had. Where such natural defences are wanting the village is protected by high palisades and by fighting platforms on trees commanding its approaches. The dobbos, or tree-houses, built in high trees, are more or less peculiar to British New Guinea. On the north-east coast many of the villages are tastefully kept, their whole area being clean swept, nicely sanded, and planted with ornamental shrubs, and have in their centre little square palaver places laid with flat stones, each with an erect stone pillar as a back-rest. Excellent suspension bridges span some of the larger rivers, made of interlaced rattan ropes secured to trees on opposite banks, so very similar to those seen in Sumatra as to suggest some Malay influence.
Papuan weapons are the bow and arrow (in the Fly River region, the north and north-east coasts); a beheading knife of a sharp segment of bamboo; a shafted stone club—rayed, disk-shaped or ball-headed (in use all over the island); spears of various forms, pointed and barbed; the spear-thrower (on the Finsch coast); and hardwood clubs and shields, widely differing in Weapons. pattern and ornamentation with the district of their manufacture. The Papuan bow is rather short, the arrows barbed and tipped with cassowary or human bone. The Papuans are mostly ignorant of iron, but work skilfully with axes of stone or tridacna shell and bone chisels, cutting down trees 20 in. in diameter. Two men working on a tree trunk, one making a cut with the adze lengthwise and the other chopping off the piece across, will soon hollow out a large canoe. Every man has a stone axe, each village generally owning a large one. Their knives are of bamboo hardened by fire. In digging they use the pointed stick. In British New Guinea alone is the man-catcher (a rattan loop at the end of a handle with a pith spike projecting into it) met with. In the D’Entrecasteaux Islands the sling is in use. For war the natives smear themselves in grotesque fashion with lime or ochres, and in some parts hold in their teeth against the chin a face-like mask, supposed to strike terror into the foe, against whom they advance warily (if not timidly), yelling and blowing their war-trumpets. The war canoe (which is a long, narrow dug-out outrigger, capable of holding twenty-eight men) is only a transport, for they never fight in it. The conch-shell is the trumpet of alarm and call to arms. The vendetta—resulting, when successful, in the bringing back the head of the slain as a trophy to be set up as a house ornament—is widely practised. The eastern tribes salute by squeezing simultaneously the nose and stomach, and both there and on the north coast friendship is ratified by sacrificing a dog. In other places they wave green branches, and on the south coast, pour water over their heads, a custom noticed by Cook at Mallicolo (New Hebrides). Among other pets they keep little pigs, which the women suckle.
The Papuan numerals extend usually to 5 only. In Astrolabe Bay the limit is 6; with the more degraded tribes it is 3, or, as in Torres straits, they have names only for 1 and 2; 3 is 2+1.
Language.—The Papuan languages or dialects are very numerous, owing, doubtless, to the perpetual intertribal hostility which has fostered isolation. In grammatical structure there is considerable resemblance between these dialects, but the verbal differences have become great. Several dialects are sometimes found on one island. The following are some broad characteristics of the Papuan languages. Consonants are freely used, some of the consonantal sounds being difficult to represent by Roman characters. Many of the syllables are closed. There does not appear to be any difference between the definite and the indefinite article, except in Fiji. Nouns are divided into two classes, one of which takes a pronominal suffix, while the other never takes such a suffix. The principle of this division appears to be a near or remote connexion between the possessor and the thing possessed. Those things which belong to a person, as the parts of his body, &c., take the pronominal suffix; a thing possessed merely for use would not take it. Thus, in Fijian the word luve means either a son or a daughter—one’s own child, and it takes the possessive pronoun suffixed, as luvena; but the word ngone, a child, but not necessarily one’s own child, takes the possessive pronoun before it, as nona ngone, his child, i.e. his to look after or bring up. Gender is only sexual. Many words are used indiscriminately, as nouns, adjectives or verbs, without change; but sometimes a noun is indicated by its termination. In most of the languages there are no changes in nouns to form the plural, but an added numeral indicates number. Case is shown by particles, which precede the nouns. Adjectives follow their substantives. Pronouns are numerous, and the personal pronoun includes four numbers—singular, dual, trinal and general plural, also inclusive and exclusive. Almost any word may be made into a verb by using with it a verbal particle. The difference in the verbal particles in the different languages is very great. In the verbs there are causative, intensive or frequentative, and reciprocal forms.
See R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (1891), Melanesian Languages (1885); B. Hagen, Unter den Papuas (Wiesbaden, 1899); G. von der Gabelentz and A. B. Meyer, Beiträge zur Kenntniss der melanesischen, &c., Sprachen (Leipzig, 1882); A. B. Meyer and R. Parkinson, Album von Papua Typen (Dresden, 1894); F. S. A. de Clercq, Ethnographische Beschrifving van de West-en Noordkust van N. N. G. (Leiden, 1893); A. C. Haddon, Decorative Art of British New Guinea (Dublin, 1894).
PAPYRUS, the paper reed, the Cyperus Papyrus of Linnaeus, in ancient times widely cultivated in the Delta of Egypt, where it was used for various purposes, and especially as a writing material. The plant is now extinct in Lower Egypt, but is found in the Upper Nile regions and in Abyssinia. Theophrastus (Hist. plant. iv. 10) states that it likewise grew in Syria; and, according to Pliny, it was also a native plant of the Niger and Euphrates. Its Greek title πάπυρος, Lat. papyrus,
appears to be of Egyptian origin. By Herodotus it is always called βυβλος. The first accurate description of the plant is given by Theophrastus, from whom we learn that it grew in shallows of 2 cubits (about 3 ft.) or less, its main root being of the thickness of a man’s wrist and 10 cubits in length. From this root, which lay horizontally, smaller roots pushed down into the mud, and the stem of the plant sprang up to the height of
4 cubits, being triangular and tapering in form. The tufted
head or umbel is likened by Pliny to a thyrsus.
The various uses to which the papyrus plant was applied are also enumerated by Theophrastus. Of the head nothing could be made but garlands for the shrines of the gods; but the wood of the root was employed in the manufacture of different utensils as well as for fuel. Of the stem of the plant were made boats, sails, mats, cloth, cords, and, above all, writing materials. Its pith was also a common article of food, and was eaten both cooked and in its natural state. Herodotus, too, notices its consumption as food (ii. 92), and incidentally mentions that it provided the material of which the priests’ sandals were made (ii. 37). He Likewise refers to the use of byblus as tow for caulking the seams of ships; and the statement of Theophrastus that King Antigonus made the rigging of his fleet of the same material is illustrated by the ship’s cable, ὄπλον βύβλινον, wherewith the doors were fastened when Ulysses slew the suitors in his hall (Odyss. xxi. 390). That the plant was itself used also as the principal material in the construction of light skiffs suitable for the navigation of the pools and shallows of the Nile, and even of the river itself, is shown by sculptures of the fourth dynasty, in which men are represented building a boat with stems cut from a neighbouring plantation of papyrus (Lepsius, Denkm. ii. 12). It is to boats of this description that Isaiah probably refers in the “vessels of bulrushes upon the waters” (xviii. 2). If the Hebrew gōmer (גמֶר) also is to be identified with the Egyptian papyrus, something may be said in favour of the tradition that the bulrushes of which the ark was composed in which the infant Moses was laid were in fact papyrus. But
