ort. Tribes would invade one another's districts and
fight savage battles. The victors would eat the bodies of the
vanquished, and carry home their heads as trophies. A chief measured his
greatness by the number of skulls he had to adorn his house.

Since the British came to Papua head-hunting and cannibalism have been
forbidden. But all efforts to instil into the minds of the Papuan a
liking for work have so far failed. So the condition of the natives is
not very happy. They have lost the only form of exercise they cared for,
and sloth, together with contact with the white man, has brought to them
new and deadly diseases. Several missionary bodies are working to
convert the Papuan to Christianity, and with some success.

The Papuan builds houses and temples. His tree-dwellings are very
curious. They are built on platforms at the top of lofty palm-trees.
Probably the Papuan first designed the tree-dwelling as a refuge from
possible enemies. Having climbed up to his house with the aid of a rope
ladder and drawn the ladder up after him, he was fairly safe from
molestation, for the long, smooth, branchless trunks of the palm-trees
do not make them easy to scale. In time the Papuan learned the
advantages of the tree-dwelling in marshy ground, and you will find
whole villages on the coast built of trees. Herodotus states of the
ancient Egyptians that in some parts they slept on top of high towers to
avoid mosquitoes and the malaria that they brought. The Papuan seems to
have arrived at the same idea.

Sorcery is a great evil among the Papuans. In every village almost, some
crafty man pretends to be a witch and to have the power to destroy those
who are his enemies. This is a constant thorn in the side of the
Government official and the missionary. The poor Papuan goes all his
days beset by the Powers of Darkness. The sorcerer, the "pourri-pourri"
man, can blast him and his pigs, crops, family (that is the Papuan
order of valuation) at will. The sorcerer is generally an old man. He
does not, as a rule, deck himself in any special garb, or go through
public incantations, as do most savage medicine-men. But he hints and
threatens, and lets inference take its course, till eventually he
becomes a recognized power, feared and obeyed by all. Extortion, false
swearing, quarrels and murders, and all manner of iniquity, follow in
his train. No native but fears him, however complete the training and
education of civilization. For the