ke the Papuans
generally, they live in settled villages and engage in fishing,
agriculture, and commerce. The houses are solidly built of wood and are
raised above the ground upon piles, which consist of a hard and durable
timber, sometimes iron-wood.[363] The staple food of the people is sago,
which they obtain from the sago-palm. These stately palms, with their
fan-like foliage, are rare on the coral island of Tumleo, but grow
abundantly in the swampy lowlands of the neighbouring mainland.
Accordingly in the months of May and June, when the sea is calm, the
natives cross over to the mainland in their canoes and obtain a supply
of sago in exchange for the products of their island. The sago is eaten
in the form both of porridge and of bread.[364] Other vegetable foods
are furnished by sweet potatoes, taro, yams, bananas, sugar-cane, and
coco-nuts, all of which the natives cultivate.[365] Fishing is a
principal industry of the people; it is plied by both sexes and by old
and young, with nets, spears, and bows and arrows.[366] Pottery is
another flourishing industry. As among many other savages, it is
practised only by women, but the men take the pots to market; for these
islanders do a good business in pots with the neighbouring tribes.[367]
They build large outrigger canoes, which sail well before the wind, but
can hardly beat up against it, being heavy to row. In these canoes the
natives of Tumleo make long voyages along the coast; but as the craft
are not very seaworthy they never stand out to sea, if they can help it,
but hug the shore in order to run for safety to the beach in stormy
weather.[368] In regard to art the natives display some taste and skill
in wood-carving. For example, the projecting house-beams are sometimes
carved in the shape of crocodiles, birds, and grotesque human figures;
and their canoes, paddles, head-rests, drums, drum-sticks, and vessels
are also decorated with carving. Birds, fish, crocodiles, foliage, and
scroll-work are the usual patterns.[369]

[Sidenote: The temples (_paraks_) of Tumleo.]

A remarkable feature in the villages of Tumleo and the neighbouring
islands and mainland consists of the _paraks_ or temples, the high
gables of which may be seen rising above the bushes in all the villages
of this part of the coast. No such buildings exist elsewhere in this
region. They are set apart for the worship of certain guardian spirits,
and on them the native lavishes all the resources of h