s, which they lay out in clearings of the dense tropical forest,
employing chiefly axes and chopping-knives as their instruments of
tillage. Of ploughs they, like most savages, seem to know nothing. The
rice and other plants which they raise in these gardens are produced by
the dry method of cultivation. In hunting birds they employ chiefly bows
and arrows, but sometimes also snares. The arrows with which they shoot
the birds of paradise are blunted so as not to injure the splendid
plumage of the birds. Turtle-shells, feathers of the birds of paradise,
and trepang are among the principal articles which they barter with
traders for cotton-goods, knives, swords, axes, beads and so forth. They
display some skill and taste in wood-carving. The art of working in iron
has been introduced among them from abroad and is now extensively
practised by the men. They make large dug-out canoes with outriggers,
which seem to be very seaworthy, for they accomplish long voyages even
in stormy weather. The making of pottery, basket-work, and weaving,
together with pounding rice and cooking food, are the special business
of women. The men wear waistbands or loin-cloths made of bark, which is
beaten till it becomes as supple as leather. The women wear petticoats
or strips of blue cotton round their loins, and as ornaments they have
rings of silver, copper, or shell on their arms and legs.[483] Thus the
people have attained to a fair degree of barbaric culture.

[Sidenote: Fear of ghosts. Ideas of the spirit-world.]

Now it is significant that among these comparatively advanced savages
the fear of ghosts and the reverence entertained for them have developed
into something which might almost be called a systematic worship of the
dead. As to their fear of ghosts I will quote the evidence of a Dutch
missionary, Mr. J. L. van Hasselt, who lived for many years among them
and is the author of a grammar and dictionary of their language. He
says: "That a great fear of ghosts prevails among the Papuans is
intelligible. Even by day they are reluctant to pass a grave, but
nothing would induce them to do so by night. For the dead are then
roaming about in their search for gambier and tobacco, and they may also
sail out to sea in a canoe. Some of the departed, above all the
so-called _Mambrie_ or heroes, inspire them with especial fear. In such
cases for some days after the burial you may hear about sunset a
simultaneous and horrible din in all the house