h the dead mother. I have
not heard of this custom in Mafulu, and do not know whether or not it
exists, or has existed, there; but as regards matters of this sort the
Mafulu and the Kuni are very similar. My statement that there is no
burying alive must be taken subject to the possibility of this custom.

[82] This custom is found elsewhere.

[83] From Dr. Haddon's distribution chart in Vol. XVI. of _The
Geographical Journal_, it will be seen that the Mafulu district is
just about at the junction between his spear area and his bow and
arrow area.

[84] I have never seen the animal called the "Macgregor bear," and I
do not know what it is. The Fathers assured me it was a bear; but in
view of the great unlikelihood of this, I consulted the authorities
at the Natural History Museum, and they think it is probably one of
the marsupials. It is named after Sir William Macgregor. It is found
in the mountains, where the forest is very thick.

[85] Compare the Motumotu (Toaripi) practice of rubbing the dogs'
mouths with a special plant, referred to by Chalmers (_Pioneering in
New Guinea_, p. 305).

[86] The birds of paradise which dance in trees include, I was told,
what the Fathers called the "Red," the "Blue," the "Black," the
"Superb" and the "Six-feathered." Those which dance on the ground
include the "Magnificent."

[87] In Mekeo the weir is made with wicker-work, at the openings in
which basket fish-traps are placed.

[88] _Pioneering in New Guinea_, pp. 3 and 4.

[89] Dr. Stapf tells me that taro is usually propagated by means of
tubers or division of crowns, that is that either the whole tuber
is planted or it is cut up, as potatoes are done, into pieces, each
of which has an eye, and each of which is planted. It would appear
that the Mafulu method, as explained to me, amounts to much the same
thing, the only difference being that instead of planting a crown, or a
piece with an eye from which a fresh shoot will proceed, they let that
shoot first grow into a young plant and then transplant the latter.

[90] I have examined at the British Museum some net work of the
dwarf people of the interior of Dutch New Guinea, brought home by
the recent expedition organised by the British Ornithologists' Union,
and found it to be similar in stitch to the Mafulu network.

[91] The 1910 comet was regarded by some of the Mekeo people with
terror, because they thought it presaged a descent of the mountain
natives upon themselv