| Show indent Art tietA race dying out dut f fa za 5 A T an antong warrior gossips with village belles prepared cd by national society washington D CS Sor borvice vice HU population of antong java TUE tiny group of islands east of new quinea quinca Is dwindling so rapidly that it appears there will be few inhabitants on the islands in a decade or two in 1907 there were about natives today there are only about passing through many of the islands villages village s one notices cleared patches and ruined houses witnesses of the tragedy of antong java the natives have fallen easy prey to malaria tuberculosis influenza and other diseases white men tried to root out the natives old customs instead of allowing them to die gradually and they were only partly successful the old color and ritual have gone leaving in their place monotony of life and a more or less sordid outlook to find what the old time was like one has to an to the older men of the village a procedure far less satisfactory to scientists than actual observation fishing Is the main occupation of the men before they can fish however they must have canoes and before canoes cannes are made there must be tools since there are no do metallic ores and the soft coral Is unsuitable for stone implements tools formerly were made from clamshells which are heavy beary and capable of being polished many of these shells are more than 2 feet across they were ground with pumice washed up by the tide few trees on island because there are so few trees on the island not nearly enough to provide boats for a quarter of the present population canoes usually are made from driftwood especially plentiful after the northwest gales to which the group Is liable from november to march one sees logs that have possibly drifted halt half around the world before they cometo rest on the beach the logs are towed to the workshop where all canoes on island are made the village mag magician aclan Is then summoned to strike the first blow and thus charm away evil spirits so that the wood can be shaped with impunity nowadays it takes two men working about six hours a day two months to make a canoe or even longer if the canoe be a large one defore before steel tools were used the work must have taken much longer the log Is first shaped on the outside next the inside Is roughly chipped out and from then on the outside and the inside are chipped alternately until the shell of the hull Is of desired thinness A strake Is lashed on with tough fiber and the space calked balked with coconut husks the whole canoe Is rubbed over with a coarse seaweed resembling lime this not only seals up any cracks but serves as a coating of white paint the autri outrigger er booms are added from three t to nine according to the size of the canoe and to these is attached the outrigger float detachable peaks are made tor for the bows and the th stern to deflect the waves then after being charmed once more by the magician the canoe Is ready for the water three cornered sails formerly made from leaves are cut now from light canvas or calico the canoe Is always sailed so that the wind strikes it on the side of the outrigger otherwise it would capsize it cannot sail against the wind though the canoes are not very seaworthy and are liable to be swamped they have carried passengers on many long voyages almost all the men go out dally daily in the canoes to catch fish and they come home laden if it Is too stormy to use the canoes a crowd goes to the lee ice side of the island to fish on the reef rach each man carries two nets tied to avo two in such a way as to form triangular tin gular bags after advancing in line along the reef for some distance the men form a semicircle with the shore as a diameter they close in slowly and when they are all close together rush forward with a shout to catch the surrounded ish fish children have their task the children wait on the shore with caskets ets into which the hauls are wit again and again the process repeated till each man thinks he be caught enough E t 1 shoal of fish offshore may be sur in much the same way the ermen going in canoes each pro A id with a long net the nets are ted together the shoal Is surround and the fish are driven ashore in hand nets or speared ome kinds of fish such as the shark 1 I the bonito may be caught only by for the shark wooden ks iks are used the bonito falls vie tim to a turtle shell hook attached to a shell lure which Is trailed from sticks behind the moving canoe with both ot of these fish magic ceremonies have to be performed before they can be hooked or brought ashore turtles are still caught and removed alive from the shell thus stripped they are kept in a specially constructed pool to grow new shells this process may be repeated as many as three times women take complete charge of the gardens and it Is their business to clear them of weeds and manure them on the days when they go to the gardens it Is only on certain days that they are allowed to go for fear that thefts might result from too great casualness they dig the taro cut off the shoots and reset them to grow gather some of the large heart shaped leaves for use in cooking pile the lot into a basket and carry it on their backs to the house it Is no mean load either taro is either cooked plain or made into puddings a mixture of grated taro and coconut oil the mess Is well pounded in the food bowl and spread on leaves before it Is set to cook upon a roaring fire made in the hole in the floor coral stones are piled and more fuel Is heaped on top of them when the fire has bus burnt out the hot stones are removed removed and the ash Is scraped away away halt half the stones are put back and covered with a layer of taro leaves on which the food Is placed more leaves the remaining hot stones and either a quantity of earth or another fire complete the cooker the time of cooking varies with the food taro requiring a comparatively short time turtle and shark about 12 hours use trading cutters for trips around the lagoon visitors use one of the cutters belonging to the trading Elat stations ions these cutters of which there are ten ply among the islands and carry coconuts from outlying places to the central depots each boat Is capable of holding uncooked nuts on kella one of the largest islands island a there are now only seven houses bouses although one can count the ruins of 75 the owners having died there was nobody to rebuild the houses and nobody to live in them it if they were rebuilt formerly at least eight other islands besides had comparatively large populations today most of their people have drifted either cither to or to pelau belau the headquarters of an independent tribe at the other end of the lagoon every man of these outlying islands ands except members of the pelau belau tribe had bad a share in the land on the central island of and either a house of his own there or a home with relatives to which he might return residence on the main island went by regular yearly rotation some of the villages were ruled by sacred kings or priests but one of these leaders always resided at as head of the tribe powerful families owned some of the islands and not many years ago one of them took all the secular power from the priest then residing at leu akiua this family established its head man eta as king ills descendant mekalie Me Mc kalke became king of the tribe after the coup the priests priest continued to exert a degree of authority on their own islands but outside of the ceremonies they had little power at the last of them died several years ago kella kelia Is a pleasant spot walking among its palms one Is reminded of a gigantic karnak with gray brown pillars and a green roof like the other islands it lias has the shallow water of the lagoon on one side with a shelving sandy beach on the ocean side the stony reef suddenly gives way to deep water without any sand or beach here one sees men picking up co coconuts co by means of long knies which they thrust into the husks without stooping they pitch the nuts into piles pile of convenient size for carrying to the shore the husks save for a small portion on each nut are removed with the aid of a stick made fast in the ground this done strips of the remaining bits of husk are torn partly tree free with the teeth and with these strips long strings of nuts are tied together at high tide the strings are towed down to the village and loaded into the cutters this floating saves an enormous amount of labor the worst coconut pest Is rats with which the outlying islands and beutin lua ina too are overrun they are able to cima any palm that has even toe the slightest slope in the trunk nibbling around a nut till it falls they soa have a feast fl J imal A |
