Beaver, Wilfred N. Beaver. 1920. Unexplored New Guinea: A record of the travels, adventures, and experiences of a resident magistrate amongst the head-hunting savages and cannibals of the unexplored interior of New Guinea. Introduction by A.C. Haddon. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company. London: Seeley, Service & Co., Ltd.
Contents: i) Papua in General. “Papua is a land of disappointment, a land where nothing happens as you anticipate, where the Unexpected usually occurs and the Impossible is achieved” (18); II) The Division; III) History. The Spaniards and Portuguese were rivals for Moluccas or Spice Islands and it was the rivalry that brought them to New Guinea. The Portuguese route was via the Cape; the Spaniards across the Pacific from Mexico and Peru; Long house in W Papua and separation of sexes although long houses exists elsewhere. Upper Waria have house apart for men; IV) Daru. Photo opposite p.48 shows a tree house. Aboriginals of Daru were the Hiamu but were exterminated by warring groups. Reference to female ‘devils’ that live in trees and a man-devil named Waime; Picture of A Tirio widow’s weeds—completely covered body—and also a man making a drum; V) Mawatta and Turituri—situated on the coast line adjacent to the estuary of the Fly River; Long history of contact—for ‘forty years—Di’Albertis visited it in 1875 and found long houses and skulls of those killed in battle with cannibalism present; both are fishing tribes; Speak a Kiwai dialect; totem groups, e.g. the turtle; VI) The Bushmen—inland area between Paho and Oriomo rivers; nomadic; complaints of sorcery (81); poison spears; Djibu people in Kuru vicinity are ‘now but a very small remnant’ (87); VII) The Bushmen (continued): Mentions Dr G Landtmann, who studied the Kiwai and wrote a book about them; VIII) The Extreme West; the Morehead people to the Dutch boundary—map on p. 121; IX) The Extreme West (continued); X) The Fly River; picture of the ravi or club house; ;photo facing p. 152 shows men with long har tags of fibre; The Fly River (continued); photo of “Baberi man from near Dutch boundary with bow and arrow, pubic shell, cowrie necklaces; comments on the nature of sorcery XII) Kiwai Island; act as middle men for trade; powerful charms are referred to as “puripuri” (165); XIII) Kiwai Island (continued): XIV) Kiwai Island (continued); facing p. 176 a picture of a Fly River long house—several hundred feet in length; XV) The Girara Tribes; XVI) The Girara Tribes (continued); map on p. 189 of area; refers to Landtmann’s journey to the Bamu; XVII) The Bamu; heads and skulls, including head knife and carrier; facing p. 216 two pictures of “Bamu River archer in full fighting dress”; map facing p. 220; very strong tides; XVIII) The Bamu (continued; XIX) The Gama and the Turama; missing front teeth and houses on stilts; facing p. 240 photo of elaborate body and head coverings; XX) Goaribari; cannibalism, burial of the dead; cassowary daggers; thieves; phot facing p. 248 of woman with fishing pot, five feet high and made of black cane; XXI) The Kikori Hinterland; the Kiko River; people wear dried hands; Mobi River; map on p. 259; contact with the Samberigi people who “proved audacious and impudent thieves” (260); house unlike those of the Fly; sweet potato; stone clubs and stone axes (“wonderfully good”, p.262); traveled west and met the Purawari (Mobi or now Foe) people who were friendly; stacks of skulls in limestone caves; underground river system; XXII) Property and Inheritance; facing p. 272 photo of Girara ceremonial head dress—found them artistic with ceremonies “sometimes fantastic and grotesque”; XXIII) Development and Possibilities of the West; lack of suitable lands; coconuts and copra, banana and nipa products; mangrove and sago, as well as tobacco; discovery of petroleum in the Gulf Division (29); XXIV) The Native, the Administration and Civilization; XXV) Religious Beliefs and Practices of the Kiwai-speaking Papuans—chapter is by Gunnar Landtmann, Lecturer in sociology at Helsingfors U. in Finland. Refers to “a Long House, several mile long, in which people from the same villages live in groups together just as in real life. They occupy themselves much in the same way as living people, but life there is much easier. The language spoken by the spirits is the same as that of the living” (302); ceremonies concerning the dead, ancestors and so on.