As soon as the girls are old enough they are initiated into the art of pottery-making, cooking, and other domestic duties, but what they all take most pleasure in is dancing. Their sole ambition in life seems to be to excel in this art—and become wives; though the latter occupation has few benefits, and, to the outsider who has studied the life of the married women, marriage would seem a grievous calamity to be avoided at all {35} costs—at least a Papuan one. The work of the married women is most arduous, and their whole existence seems to be taken up in waiting hand and foot on their loafing lords, bearing children, and bringing them up. All the cares and worries of the precarious lives of these natives seem to be thrown on to the shoulders of wives, who bear it with a stolid philosophy that defies imitation.

One of the most remarkable things about the mother is her unique way of carrying her child, a method totally different from that of any other savage or civilised race. From its infancy the baby is put into a sort of miniature hammock made of vegetable fibre, with a very fine mesh, through which the little bundle of humanity can be seen kicking merrily. When carrying the child, the ends of this hammock, which are woven together and make a circle of the net, are placed over, and rest on the mother’s head. Thus the baby hangs suspended in this arrangement just below the woman’s breasts or over her back. It is a convenient arrangement, for the mother is perfectly free to walk about and, if necessary, work a little with her hands. As a rule, however, when she is working she hangs her child up on one of the cross-beams of her hut, and many can be seen thus suspended under the {36} verandah-like shades of the roofs, when they look very much like cocoons.

This form of carrying a weight, however, is not peculiar to the Papuan, as instances of it can be seen in Egypt. A native porter will often suspend a heavy portmanteau by straps from the top of his head and jog along serenely with it. Child-carrying in this way is, however, quite original and is, I believe, only seen in New Guinea. The Maori method of carrying them on their backs, wrapped in a shawl which the woman crosses over her chest, is infinitely better in some respects, as it enables her to do hard labour without any inconvenience.

One trait that is particularly noticeable among all the children of savage races is their silent philosophy. No matter what happens these babes remain serenely calm; they may be left for hours without food or drink, they may be hung upside down, dropped, trodden on,—in fact, any calamity may befall them,—but still they are silent. The only difference that is evident is when they have been uncomfortable for hours and are suddenly put right, when they resume their kicking, but very soon even this form of exuberance subsides, and silence, unmoved silence, is restored.