Studio: international art (30.1904)

Art in British New Guinea

" LAKATOIS " DRAWN BY C. PR.ETORIUS

Hobgoblins and ghosts .'.haunt him ; from them he
suffers great alarms as"they wander in the night.
Chirping lizards, a falling leaf, or birds singing at
unusual times all have terrors for him; embodied
spirits cause him fear, especially in the stillness of
the uncanny hour between the morning star and
dawn.

With the light he stretches his limbs, yawns, and
finds solace in a morning pipe.

Papuan tobacco pipes are made from a piece of
bamboo, usually about three feet in length, in
which there are two or three nodes; one end
is left intact,, the two other partitions are per-
forated. The tobacco is twisted up in a leaf.
Sometimes a bowl is made of a short piece of
bamboo or other wood, which is stuck in a small
hole made four or five inches from the end of the
bamboo tube. Two types of pipes and a tobacco
box are shown on page 56. Tobacco pipes are
seldom without some decorative patterns, the bark
or skin of the bamboo lending itself for the pur-
pose, and also being an easy surface to decorate.
There were two methods of dealing with the
bamboo. One was simply scratching the design
into the surface with some sharply pointed instru-
ment, which was worked with a roulette-like
motion; the other method, perhaps more popular,
was drawing the pattern with the glowing stem of a
palm leaf, this being a process similar to poker-
work. Deeply cut patterns, like those seen on
objects of hard, dark wood, are not found on these
pipes. Animal forms, encircling lines, and many
forms of zig-zags were favourite designs for pipes
in the Torres Straits. In this region grotesque
human faces and masks, all having their definite
meaning, were much in evidence at festivals and
dances.

Symbolic dances were of frequent occurrence in

52

the Papuan Gulf. Of the precise meaning of the
numerous totemistic signs and symbols, little *is
known. The dance masks and head dresses made

CARVED CLUBS AND A DRAWN BY

CANOE ORNAMENT C. PR^JTORIUS