Two Years Among New Guinea Cannibals / A Naturalist's Sojourn Among the Aborigines of Unexplored New Guinea

Chapter 20: CHAPTER XII THE UNEXPLORED: AMONG PAPUAN PEAKS

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About This Book

The narrative recounts two years of scientific fieldwork in New Guinea, combining natural-history collecting with ethnographic observation. The author describes arduous inland travel, coastal settlements and village life, local crafts and watercraft, dialectal diversity, ceremonies, and everyday material culture while recording birds, insects, and new species. Chapters detail camps, transport challenges, encounters with various tribes, and practical arrangements for collection and study; appendices present specimen records and scientific notes. Illustrations and a map accompany practical accounts of landscape, wildlife, and indigenous technologies.

CHAPTER XII
THE UNEXPLORED: AMONG PAPUAN PEAKS

Still Higher in the Owen Stanley Range—The Road to Mafulu—Beauties of the Forest—The Hill Step—Curious Habit of Walking acquired in Abrupt Ground—Cold at High Altitudes—A New Camp built—Alpine Signs in Insects and Flowers—Routine Work—Food runs low again—Native Thieves—Followers discontented—They fear the Hostile Mafulu People—Daily Threats of Desertion—Strict Watch—My Rule for Night Visitors—Compulsory Carrying of Torches and Disarming—Weirdly Picturesque Night Scenes—Further Privations—Bird of Paradise Soup—Ugh!—Decide to depart—Natives burn down Camp to ensure our going.