The Mafulu | Page 9

respective districts
are on opposite sides of the main mountain range of the country, and
still more so if the people of one of the districts (in the present case I
refer to the Chirima people) may perhaps have been subject to the
influence of other people beyond them. As to this latter point, however,
I should say that these Chirima people seem to be, so far as dress,
ornaments, &c., are concerned, much nearer to the Mafulu than they are
to the natives of the Mambare river itself, as described by Sir William

Macgregor. [14] It is curious also that the dogs of the Chirima people
are not yellow dingoes, but are black and white, as is the case in
Mafulu.
I notice that Dr. Seligmann suggests that these Chirima valley people
are related to the natives of the neighbourhood of Mt. Yule, [15] a
statement which, though probably intended broadly, is in accord with
the suggestion that they are connected with the Mafulu-speaking
people.
The natives of Mt. Scratchley (apparently the eastern or south-eastern
side), visited by Sir William Macgregor in 1896, appear from his
description of them [16] to show a few points of resemblance to the
Mafulu people. In particular I refer to their "dark bronze" colour, to the
wearing by women of the perineal band (to which, however, is added a
mantle and "in most cases" a grass petticoat, which is not done in
Mafulu), to the absence of tattooing or cicatrical ornamentation, to their
"large earrings made out of tails of lizards covered by narrow straps of
palm leaves dyed yellow" (which, though not correctly descriptive of
the Mafulu earring, is apparently something like it), to their use of pigs'
tails as ear ornaments, to their plaiting of the hair and the decoration of
the plaited hair with teeth and shells, to their small charm bags and to
the shortness of their bows. Also to the construction of their houses,
with the roof carried down to the ground, with a fireplace about 2 feet
wide extending down the centre of the building from one end to the
other, and having an inclined floor on each side, and especially to the
curious apse-like roof projections in front of these houses (Dr. Haddon
calls them "pent roofs" [17]), Sir William's figure of which is, like that
of the Chirima villages, identical, or nearly so, with that of a Mafulu
house. But Sir William's description of the physique of these Mt.
Scratchley people and other matters make it clear, I think, that they
belong to a type different from that of the Mafulu, though they must be
next door neighbours of the Fuyuge-speaking people. Dr. Seligmann, in
commenting upon this description of these people, expresses the
opinion that they are Papuo-Melanesians. [18]
The natives in the region of Mt. Musgrave and Mt. Knutsford, as

described by Mr. Thomson, [19] appear, at all events so far as dress is
concerned, to be utterly different from the Mafulu.
Dr. Seligmann states that Dr. Strong has informed him that the southern
boundary of the Fuyuge-speaking area is the Kabadi country, [20] and
he had previously referred to Korona, immediately behind the Kabadi
and Doura districts, as being within the area, [21] and, indeed, the
Geographical Society's map shows the Fuyuge area as at all events
extending as far south as Korona. I do not know how far inland the
Kabadi and Doura people extend; but I may say that the Mafulu Fathers
expressed grave doubt as to the extension of the Fuyuge area so far
south as is indicated by the map.
If the Fuyuge area does in fact reach the Kabadi boundary, and if my
notes on the Mafulu people are, as suggested, broadly descriptive of the
natives of the whole Fuyuge area, there must be a very sudden and
sharp differentiation, as the Kabadi people are apparently an offshoot
from Mekeo, [22] with apparently other Papuo-Melanesian blood
(especially Roro) introduced. [23]
The contour and appearance of the country in the actual Mafulu district
of the Fuyuge area is strikingly different from that of the immediately
adjoining Kuni country, the sharp steep ridges and narrow deep-cut
valleys of the latter, with their thick unbroken covering of almost
impenetrable forest, changing to higher mountain ranges with lateral
ridges among them, and with frequent gentle undulating slopes and
wider and more open valleys; while, interspersed with the forests, are
small patches and great stretches of grass land, sometimes thinly
covered or scattered with timber and sometimes quite open and devoid
of trees. [24] And this condition continues, I was told, over the greater
part of the triangular area above referred to.
Plates 1 and 2 give, I think, a fair illustration of what I mean, the steep
contours and thickly wooded character of