Show af A in the malay archipelago has been found and explored described and pictured it is as weird and wonderful as gull Gul ivers livers lilliput and is actual fact not satirical fancy it Is hidden in the mountainous heart of new guinea or papua the largest island in the world counting australia as a continent lying south of 0 the tha equator and separated from australia by the sea and torres strait new G guinea un I 1 e a has a an a area re a 0 ot f 0 0 square miles the possession of this vast territory Is divided politically speaking between holland great britain and germany only in the british territory has any serious attempt been made at settling and administering the country owing to its remote cifu situation aaion its rugged mountain ranges and impenetrable forests its deadly climate and hostile Os tile treacherous inhabitants new guinea today is practically terra incognita cog nita it offers greater opportunities for the explorer collector and anthropologist po logist than any other portion of the globe thia the expedition recently sent to this virgin land by the british fists union made pioneer explorations in the land ot of the tapiro pygmies described in two narratives of sensa i lional interest doctor tons i pygmies and papuans Papu ans sturgis fain walton co new york and cap captain rawlings land of the new guinea pygmies J B lippincott co philadelphia delp hla here la Is a marvelous country with snow clad peaks as high as mount blanc rising from impenetrable tropical forests inhabited by native races who live in so primitive a state that it is literally what doctor wollaston calls it the stone age today the pygmies encountered by wollaston in one of their villages among the spurs of mount tapiro were cleanly built active little follows fellows whose average adult stature was somewhat less than four feet six inches their skin Is a dusky yellowish brown hali hair short and woolly and black many ot of the men have short bushy black beards with the exception of a head dress of platted plaited fibers and feathers aud a gourd strapped around the loins they go about unclothed they carry bows and arrows flint knives and tone stone headed clubs and make fire by friction friction of bamboo sticks blowing the smoldering tinder into flame the raise and smoke tobacco mostly in the form of cigarettes set snares for birds wild pigs and small animals and extract a taint faint pleasing sort of 0 music from a split bamboo instrument something like a jews harp doctor wollaston found the tapiro pygmies shy and timorous but eager tor for barter and extremely curious about the white men their women he never set eyes on the village headman a bald and white bearded old od creature horribly disfigured by disease kept up a shrill shouting all tho the while bile the strangers were in sight and and it was probably due to his protests that the englishmen on oil this trip at least were not permitted to view the female of tile the species it may have been that the pygmies feared the big papuan men who accompanied com compa panted nied the expedition from the plains would carry ott off their wives it seems the supply of papuan women is very scanty and the men would be apt to seize any chance of abducting a tapiro woman mr wollaston tells of an exciting chase after two small men who were ultimately captured and kindly treated but who showed no inclination to conduct strangers to theli their 1101 bocie ne this with the aid of native porters was finally reached and i I 1 aa al 41 aw friendly relations set up with the tapiro as these newly discovered pygmies are called the men submitting willingly to measurements which showed an average height of four feet nine inches but no offers of 0 metal knives and axes would induce them to let their women be seen probably mr wollaston conjectures because they feared abduction by the papuans Papu ans he supplies interesting about them although vagueness atten attends ds these for they are so indescribably dirty that it Is not easy to know which is their true color but the type is distinctly negrito the language of the tapiro pygmies seemed to be radically different from that ot of the papuans Papu ans and the wollaston party were unable to make even the smallest vocabulary of it their voices are high pitched and nasal and tull full of animal like throat sounds impossible to render phonetically in writing captain rawling and doctor marshall had somewhat better luck through a forest filled with birds of paradise and emerald green serpents they penetrated to the pygmy village of high up in the hills and spent a day and a night there photographing and parleying parl eying with the lilliputian natives in the line of feminist study however they made no further advance than their predecessors had done it was only among the pygmies grownup cousins the taller papuans of the plains that they secured those pictures of women and children which form forin so BO striking and convincing a complement to the published narratives the more one sees of these people writes rawling ng the more one ona realizes that their lives are one long iong struggle for existence precipitous mountains with deep and gloomy gorges surround them on either hand every toot foot of ground clothed with the densest forest with perpetual rain with no wild fruit or edible roots and flesh in any torn form scarce and hard to procure one must see the ground to appreciate the amount of labor that has been expended in clearing away the great trees and vegetation in their efforts to cultivate the less precipitous land when it Is realized that this has been accomplished solely with the aid of fire a difficult operation in this wet climate stone axes and two implements clements ts fashioned out of 0 a couple ot of small pieces of 0 hoop iron fastened to bamboo handles the magnitude of the task will be understood the visitors displayed large butcher knives which elicited gasps of admiration and envy from the pygmies and explained that these prizes were for such men as would induce a woman to show herself yet all to no purpose the old men formed the obstructionist party the young ones by themselves might have yielded to the temptation they said the women had surreptitiously peeped at the white men from the screen of the jungle but had bad been scared off by the clothes they wore the pygmies it is believed intermarry bilth ath the people of the plains who are of larger stature and not so turkish or mormon like ilke in their ideas about the segregation of the female sex BOX the papuan women of have no great attractions either natural or artificial to hide or conceal with the exception of 0 a lew few beads they wear nothing but the loin cloth made from the bark of a tree poor wretches exclaims esc laima the ex clorer their days are one long rou round n d of toil and they have little leisure to think of trinkets or decoration woman the weaker creature is relegated to a very inferior arlor position and is in fact the slave body and soul ot of her lord and master becoming hla his prop erty to deal with as ag he pleases 11 mar ar biages except on special occasions are not considered of 0 much imbor tance and are not celebrated by feasts or jollification nor is any at paid to the birth of a child it if dress can be looked upon as a 8 source of pleasure widows in kaupua haupu a are to be envied inasmuch as aa they are required to adopt outward and visible signs of their bereavement A widow of standing will decorate herself with a short ead scanty bodice ot of woven grass which leaves the stomach bare while from the hips will hang a still more ragged form ot of skirt surmounting all Is a peculiarly shaped poke bonnet made ot of the sane same material which unless the lady wishes to be seen completely hides her face ace young widows are not so careful to conceal theli their charms and are usually satisfied with the scantiest of 0 skirts in the form of bunches of 0 grass hanging in front and behind and it they fancy it with more tutta hanging from the biceps probably nowhere else in the world are the birth and death rates so high as in new guinea the suggestion here occurs that the gift of for a world health campaign which benefaction ambassador page announced the other day in london as having been projected by a number of or wealthy americans may find scope in new guinea the income of this fund according to published announcement which will amount to about a year will be applied to the study and cure of diseases among native races in all parts of the world |