Adventures in New Guinea James Chalmers

100
1000 feet high, and from it we saw Fisherman's Island, Redscar Bay,
Bootless Inlet, and the whole coast east to Round Head.
9_th_.--Arrived at Keninumu at half-past ten a.m. Found all well. The
natives are constantly on the look-out for the Tabori attack on
Munikahila. We hear the Munikahila natives have been stealing from
Goldie.
14_th_.--Since our return we have been house-building, but are getting on
very slowly. I fear we are six weeks too late for the Kupele district,
and shall have to leave it for another season. It would be awkward to
get in and not get back until the end of the wet season. I find our
friend the chief, Poroko, has had two wives; one he killed lately. She
was in the plantation, and some young fellows coming along, she sat down
with them to have a smoke and get the news; Poroko heard of it, and on
her coming home in the evening he killed her. A woman at Favelle said,
"Oh, the Koiari man thinks nothing of killing his wife." The word for
"sneeze" in Koiari is _akiso_. When they are leaving for a journey or
going for the night they call out _kiso_, and often from their houses
they shout their good-night to us, _kiso_. There is a woman in deep
mourning for her daughter. She has hanging round her neck all the
ornaments once the property of the deceased, and along with them the
jawbone. The headless body she visits occasionally, and rubs herself all
over with the juice from it!
18_th_.--We have a great crowd of natives in from Kupele, the nearest
district to Mount Owen Stanley. They are the same race of people as at
Meroka--some very dark, others very light-coloured. Their weapons are
the same as the Koiari, as also is their dress. Two men are in mourning,
and are wearing netted vests. The chief is rather a fine-looking fellow,
and dressed profusely with cassowary feathers. They all have a wisp of