The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

XXXIV.] NEW GUINEA.—DOREY. 381left, having lain here a month, according to her contract ; andon the same day my hunters went out to slioot for tlie first time,and brought home a magnificent crown pigeoii and a fewcommon birds. The next day they were more successful, and Iwas delighted to see them return with a Bird of Paradise in fullplumage, a pair of the fine Papuan lories (Lorius domicella),four other lories and parroquets, a grackle (Gracula dumonti),a king-hunter (Dacelo gaudichaudi), a racquet-tailed kingfisher(Tanysiptera galatea), and two or three other birds of lessbeauty. I went myself to visit tlie native village on the hillbehind Dorey, and took with me a small jjresent of cloth, knives,and beads, to secure the good-will of the chief, and get him tosend some men to catch or shoot birds for me. The houses wei'escattered about among rudely cultivated clearings. Two whichI visited consisted of a central passage, on each side of whichopened short passages, admitting to two rooms, eacli of whichwas a house accommodating a separate family. They wereelevated at least fifteen feet above the ground, on a completeforest of poles, and were so rude and dilapidated that some ofthe small passages had openings in the floor of loose sticks,through which a child might fall. The inhabitants seemedratlier uglier than those at Dorey village. Tliey are, no doubt,tlie true indigenes of this part of New Guinea, living in theinterior, and subsisting by cultivation and hunting. The Doreymen, on the other hand, areshore-dwellers, fishers andtraders in a small way, andhave thus the character of acolony who have migratedfrom another district. Thesehillmen or " Arfaks " differedmuch in j^hysical features.They were generally black,but some were brown likeMalays. Their haii', though alwaysmore or less frizzly, wassometimes short and matted,instead of being long, loose,and woolly ; and this seemedto be a constitutional difference,not the effect of care andcultivation. Nearly half ofthem were afflicted with thescurfy skin-disease. The oldchief seemed much pleasedwith his present, and promised(through an interpreterPAPUAN PIPE.I brought with me) to protectmy men when they came there shooting, and also to procureme some birds and animals. While conversing, they smoked