Chapter 5

Daily Life and Matters Connected with It

Daily Life.

The early morning finds the wife and young children and unmarried daughters in the house. The husband has been sleeping either there or in the _emone_ (clubhouse), but most probably the latter. The unmarried sons are in the _emone_, except any very young ones, who have not been formally admitted to it in a way which will be hereafter described. The women cook the breakfast for the whole family inside the house at about six or seven o'clock, and then take the food of the men to the _emone_. After breakfast most of the men and women go off to the gardens and the bush. The women's work there is chiefly the planting of sweet potatoes, taro and other things, and cleaning the gardens; and in the afternoon they get food from the gardens and firewood from the bush, all of which they bring home to the village; also they have to clear off the undergrowth from newly cleared bush. The men's work is mainly the yam and banana and sugar-cane planting, each in its season, and the cutting down of big trees and making fences, if they happen to be opening out new garden land. They also sometimes help the women with their work. Or they may have hunting expeditions in the bush, or go off in fishing parties to the river. In all matters the men of Mafulu, though lazy, are not so lazy as those of Mekeo and the coast. In the middle of the day the women cook the meal for everyone in the gardens, this being done on the spot, and there they all eat it. At three, four, or five o'clock all the people of the village have returned to it, except perhaps when they are very busy taking advantage of good weather for making new clearings or other special work. In the evening they have another meal cooked in the village. At every meal in the village the pigs have to be fed also, these sharing the food of the people themselves, or feeding on raw potatoes. Unless there is dancing going on, or they are tempted by a fine moonlight night to sit out talking, the people all terminate their routine day by going to bed early.

As regards the daily social conduct of the people among themselves, I was told that the members of a family generally live harmoniously together (subject as regards husbands and wives to the matters which will be mentioned later), that children are usually treated kindly and affectionately by their parents, and that there is very little quarrelling within a village; and what I saw when I was among the Mafulu people certainly seemed to confirm all this.

There are various detailed matters of daily life which will appear under their appropriate headings; but I will here deal with a few of them.

Food.

The vegetable foods of the Mafulu people are sweet potato and other plants of the same type, yam and other foods of the same type, taro and other foods of that type, banana of different sorts, sugar-cane, a kind of wild native bean, a cultivated reed-like plant with an asparagus flavour (what it is I do not know), several plants of the pumpkin and cucumber type, one of them being very small, like a gherkin, fruit from two different species of Pandanus, almonds, the fruit of the _malage_ (described later on), and others, both cultivated and wild. The sugar-cane is specially eaten by them when working in the gardens. [49]

Their animal food consists of wild pig and, on occasions, village pig, a small form of cassowary, kangaroo, a small kind of wallaby, kangaroo rat, "iguana," an animal called _gaivale_ (I could not find out what this is), various wild birds, fish, eels, mice, a large species of snake and other things.

Their staple drink is water, but when travelling they cut down a species of bamboo, and drink the watery fluid which it contains. After boiling any food in bamboo stems they drink the water which has been used for the purpose, and which has become a sort of thin flavoured soup.

Betel-chewing is apparently not indulged in by these people as extensively as it is done in Mekeo and on the coast; but they like it well enough, and for a month or so before a big feast, during which period they are under a strict taboo restriction as to food, they indulge in it largely. The betel used by them is not the cultivated form used in Mekeo and on the coast, but a wild species, only about half the size of the other; and the lime used is not, as in Mekeo and on the coast, made by grinding down sea-shells, but is obtained from the mountain stone, which is ground down to a powder. The gourds (Plate 51, Figs. 6 and 7) in which the lime is carried are similar to those used in Mekeo, except that usually they are not ornamented, or, if they are so, the ornamentation is only done in simple straight-lined geometric patterns. The spatulae are sometimes very simply and rudely decorated. The people spit out the betel after chewing, instead of swallowing it, as is the custom in Mekeo.

Cooking and Eating and Their Utensils.

They have no cooking utensils, other than the simple pieces of bamboo stem, which they use for boiling.

Their usual methods of cooking are roasting and boiling.

Roasting is usually effected by making a fire, letting it die down into red-hot ashes, and then putting the food without wrap or covering into the ashes, turning it from time to time. They also roast by holding the food on sticks in the flame of the burning fire, turning it occasionally. Stone cooking is adopted for pig and other meats. They make a big fire, on the top of which they spread the stones; when the stones are hot enough, they remove some of them, place the meat without wrap or covering on the others, then place the removed stones on the meat, and finally pile on these stones a big covering of leaves to keep in the heat. Stone cooking in the gardens is done in a slightly different way; there they dig in the ground a round hole about 1 foot deep and from 1 1/2 to 2 feet in diameter, and in this hole they make their fire, on which they pile their stones; and the rest of the process is the same as before. This hole-making process is never adopted in the village. The only reason for it which was suggested was that the method was quicker, and that in the gardens they are in a hurry. Of course, holes of this sort dug in the open village enclosure would be a source of danger, especially at night.

Boiling is done in pieces of bamboo about 4 inches in diameter and about 15 or 18 inches long. They fill these with water, put the food into them, and then place or hold the bamboo stems in a slanting position in the flames. This method is specially used for cooking sweet potatoes, but it is their only method of boiling anything. Water, which they keep stored and carry in bamboo receptacles and hollow pumpkins, is boiled in bamboo stems in the same way. The bamboo storage vessels are generally from 2 to 5 feet long, the intersecting nodes, other than that at one end, having been removed. The pumpkins (Plate 52, Figs. 2 and 3) are similar to those used by the Roro coast people and in Mekeo, except that the usual form, instead of being rather short and broad with a narrow opening, is longer and narrower, some of them being, say, 3 feet long, and often very curved and crooked in shape.

Their only eating utensils are wooden dishes and small pieces of wood, or sometimes of cassowary or kangaroo bone, which are used as forks, and pieces of split bamboo, which are used for cutting meat; but these latter are used for other purposes, and rather come within the list of ordinary implements, and will be there described. They also use prepared pig-bones as forks; but these again are largely used for other purposes, and will be described under the same heading.

The dishes (Plate 52, Fig. 1) are made out of the trunk of a tree called _ongome_. The usual length of a dish, without its handles, is between 1 and 2 feet; its width varies from 9 inches to 1 foot, and its depth from 3 to 6 inches. It is rudely carved out of the tree-trunk, [50] the work being done with stone adzes--unless they happen to possess European axes--and it generally has a handle at one or both ends. It is not decorated with carving in any way. The common form of handle is merely a simple knob about 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. But it is sometimes less simple, and I have a dish one of the handles of which is divided into two projecting pieces about 7 1/2 inches long and joined to each other at the end. The handle is always carved out of the same piece of wood as is the dish; never made separately and afterwards attached. The wooden forks are simply bits cut from trees and sharpened at one end, and they are without prongs. Their use is only temporary, and they are not permanently stored as household utensils. The cassowary and kangaroo bone implements (Plate 25, Fig. 3) are also merely roughly pointed unpronged pieces of bone, and otherwise without special form. When eating _en famille_ they do not always use these pointed wooden and bone sticks, but very commonly take the food out of the dish with their hands only; but if the family had guests with them they would probably use the sticks more, and their hands less. The men and women often eat together, sitting round the dish and helping themselves out of it, though, if there are too many to do this conveniently, pieces will be handed out to some of them.

Various Implements.

Besides the cooking and eating implements above described and other things, such as weapons of war and of hunting and fishing, and implements for manufacture, agriculture and music, which will be dealt with under their own headings, there are a few miscellaneous things which may be conveniently described here.

Bamboo knives (Plate 51, Fig. 5). These are simple strips made out of a special mountain form of bamboo, and are generally 8 to 10 inches long and about 1 inch wide. One edge is left straight for its whole length, and the other is cut away near the end, very much as we cut away one side of a quill pen, so as to produce a sharp point. The side edge which is used for cutting is the one which is not cut away at the end; and when it gets blunt it is renewed by simply peeling off a length of fibre, thus producing a new edge, bevelled inwards towards the concave side of the implement, and making a hard and very sharp fresh cutting edge. The point can of course be sharpened at any time in the obvious way.

Pig-bone implements (Plate 51, Fig. 2). These are the implements which are often used as forks, but they have straight edges also with which they are used as scraping knives, and they are utilised for many other purposes. The implement, which is, I think, similar to what is commonly found in Mekeo and on the coast, is made out of the leg-bone of a pig, and is generally from 5 to 8 inches long. One side of the bone is ground away, so as to make the implement flattish in section, one side (the outside unground part of the bone) being somewhat convex, and the other (where the bone has been ground away) being rather concave. Some of the joint end of the bone is left to serve as a handle; and from this the bone is made to narrow down to a blunt, rather flattish and rounded point, somewhat like that of a pointed paper-cutter. The side edge is used for scraping, and the point for sticking into things.

Smoking pipes are in the ordinary well-known form of Mekeo and the coast, being made of sections of bamboo stem in which the natural intersecting node near the mouthpiece end is bored and the node at the other end is left closed, and between these two nodes, near to the closed one, is a flute-like hole, in which is placed the cigarette of tobacco wrapped up in a leaf. They are, however, generally not ornamented; or, if they are so, it is merely in a simple geometric pattern of straight lines. I obtained one pipe (Plate 51, Fig. 1) of an unusual type, being much smaller than is usual. A special feature of this pipe is its decoration, which includes groups of concentric circles. This is the only example of a curved line which I ever met with among the Mafulu villages, and it is probable that it had not been made there.

Boring drills (Plate 51, Fig. 4) are also similar to those of Mekeo and the coast, except that there the fly-wheel is, I think, usually a horizontal circular disc, through the centre of which the upright shaft of the implement passes, whereas in the Mafulu boring instrument the fly-wheel, through which the shaft passes, is a rudely cut flat horizontal piece of wood about 9 or 10 inches long, 2 inches broad, and half an inch or less thick, and also that in Mafulu the native point, made out of a pointed fragment of the stone used for making club-heads, adze blades and cloth-beaters, is not generally replaced by a European iron point, as is so commonly the case in Mekeo and near the coast. These drills are used for boring dogs' teeth and shells and other similar hard-substanced things, but are useless for boring articles of wood or other soft substances, in which the roughly formed point would stick. [51]

Fire-making. This is a question of process, rather than of implement, but may be dealt with here. To produce fire, the Mafulu native takes two pieces of very dry and inflammable wood, one larger than the other, and some dry bark cloth fluff. He then holds the smaller piece of wood and the fluff together, and rubs them on the larger piece of wood. After four or five minutes the fluff catches fire, without bursting into actual flame, upon which the native continues the rubbing process, blowing gently upon the fluff, until the two pieces of wood begin to smoulder, and can then be blown into a sufficient flame for lighting a fire.

Carrying bags. These are all made of network. I shall say something about the mode of netting and colouring them hereafter, and will here only deal with the bags and their use. They are of various sizes,

(1) There are the large bags used by women for carrying heavy objects, such as firewood, vegetables and fruit, which they bring back to the village on their return in the afternoon from the gardens and bush. These bags are carried in the usual way, the band over the opening of the bag being passed across the front of the head above the forehead, and the bag hanging over the back behind. They are curved in shape, the ends of the bag being at both its top and bottom edges higher than are the centres of those edges, so that, when a bag is laid out flat, its top line is a concave one and its bottom line is a convex one. The network at the two ends of the top line is continued into the loop band by means of which the bag is carried. The usual dimensions of one of these bags, as it lies flat and unstretched on a table (the measurements being made along the curved lines) are as follows--top line about 2 feet, bottom line about 3 feet, and side lines about 18 inches. But when filled with vegetables, firewood, etc., they expand considerably, especially those made of "Mafulu network," of which I shall speak hereafter. These bags are uncoloured. (2) There are similar, but somewhat smaller, bags, in which the women carry lighter things, and which in particular they use for carrying their babies. They frequently carry this bag and the larger one together; and you will often see a woman with a big bag heavily laden with vegetables or firewood or both, and another smaller bag (perhaps also slung behind over the top of the big one, or hanging from her head at her side, or over her breast), which contains her baby, apparently rolled up into a ball. These bags also are uncoloured. (3) There are other bags, similar perhaps in size to No. 2, used for visiting and at feasts, dances and similar occasions, and also sometimes used for carrying babies. The top line of one of these is generally about 2 feet long, the bottom line a trifle longer, and the side lines about 1 foot. These are coloured in decorative patterns. (4) There are small bags of various sizes carried by men slung over their shoulders or arms, and used to hold their betel-nut, pepper and tobacco and various little implements and utensils of daily life. These are sometimes uncoloured and sometimes coloured. (5) There are the very small charm bags, only about 2 inches or a trifle more square, which are used by both men and women (I think only the married ones) for carrying charms, and are worn hanging like lockets from the neck. They are sometimes coloured.

Plate 53 gives illustrations of three of these bags--Fig. 1 being a woman's ornamented bag No. 3, and Fig. 2 being a man's ornamented bag No. 4; but this last-mentioned bag is rather a large one of its type, the usual difference in size between Nos. 3 and 4 being greater than the two examples figured would suggest. The patterns of both these bags, and especially of the larger one, are more regular than is usually the case. The bag shown in Fig. 3 will be dealt with hereafter under the heading of netting.

As regards women, the carrying of bags, either full or empty, hanging over their backs is so common that one might almost regard the bag as an additional article of dress. I may say here in advance of my observations on netting that the distinctive features of Mafulu bags, as compared with those made in Mekeo and on the coast, are the special and peculiar form of netting which is commonly adopted for some of them and the curious lines of colouring with which they are often ornamented.

Hammocks are commonly used in the houses and _emone_ for sleeping. [52] These also are made of network and will be referred to later. The distinctive feature of network mentioned in relation to bags applies to these also, but not that of colouring.

Pottery is not made or used in Mafulu.

I may perhaps refer here to what I imagine to be an ancient stone mortar, which I found at Mafulu, and which I have endeavoured to show in Fig. 2. A portion of the upper part of the original was broken away, and I regret that I did not try to sketch it just as it was, instead of adopting the easier course of following what had been the original lines. I am also sorry that its great weight made it impossible for me to bring it down with me to the coast, [53] and that by an oversight I did not secure a photograph of it. The vessel was well and evenly shaped. It had perfectly smooth surfaces, without any trace of cutting or chipping, and must have been made by grinding. It was devoid of any trace of decoration. Its top external diameter was about 12 inches, its height, when standing upright on its base, was about 8 inches, and the thickness of the bowl at the lip about 1 inch. I was told that similar things are from time to time found in the district, generally on the ridges, far away from water. A Mafulu chief said that the Mafulu name for these things is _idagafe._ The natives have no knowledge of their origin or past use, the only explanation of the latter which was suggested being that they were used as looking-glasses by looking into the scummy surface of the water inside them. [54]

European things. The Mafulu people are now beginning, mainly through the missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and also through their contact with Mekeo and other lowland tribes, to get into touch with European manufactures. Trade beads, knives, axes, plane irons (used by them in place of stone blades for their adzes), matches and other things are beginning to find their way directly and indirectly into such of the villages as are nearest to the opportunities of procuring them by exchange or labour.

Domestic Animals.

Dogs may occasionally, though only rarely, be seen in the villages, but these are small black, brownish-black, or black and white dogs with very bushy tails, and not the yellow dingo dogs which infest the villages of Mekeo; and even these Mafulu dogs are, I was told, not truly a Mafulu institution, having been obtained by the people, I think, only recently from their Kuni neighbours. A tame cockatoo may also very occasionally be seen, and even, though still more rarely, a tame hornbill. There are no cocks and hens.

The universal domestic animal of the Mafulu, however, is the pig, and he is so important to them that he is worthy of notice. These pigs are "village" pigs, which, though naturally identical with "wild" pigs--being, in fact, wild pigs which have been caught alive or their descendants--have to be distinguished from wild pigs, and especially so in connection with feasts and ceremonies.

Village pigs are the individual property of the householders who possess them, there being no system of community or village ownership; and, when required for feasts and ceremonies, each household has to provide such pig or pigs as custom requires of it. They are bred in the villages by their owners, and by them brought up, fed and tended, the work of feeding and looking after them being the duty of the women. No distinguishing ownership marks are put upon the pigs, but their owners know their own pigs, and still more do the pigs know the people who feed them; so that disputes as to ownership do not arise. The number of pigs owned by these people is enormous in proportion to the size of their villages, and I was told that a comparatively small village will be able at a big feast to provide a number of village pigs much in excess of what will be produced by one of the big Mekeo villages.

These village pigs often wander away into the bush, and may disappear from sight for months; but they nevertheless still continue to be village pigs. If, however, they are not seen or heard of for a very long time (say six months), they are regarded as having become wild pigs, and may be caught and appropriated as such. It is usual with village pigs to clip or shorten their ears and tails, or even sometimes to remove their eyes, so as to keep them from wandering into the gardens. [55] But even a village pig thus marked as such would be regarded as having become a wild pig if it had disappeared for a very long time.

Village pigs (as distinguished from wild pigs) are, as will be seen below, never eaten in their own village on ceremonial occasions, or indeed perhaps at all, being only killed and cut up and given to the visitors to take away and eat in their own villages.

Etiquette.

These simple people do not appear to have many customs which come under the heading of etiquette, pure and simple.

A boy must soon, say within a few weeks, after he has received his perineal band leave the parental home, and go to live in the _emone;_ but this rule only refers to his general life, and does not prohibit him from ever entering his parents' house. If he receives his band when he is very young, this rule will not begin to operate until he is ten or twelve years old. He is in no case under any prohibition from being in or crossing the village enclosure. A girl is allowed to enter the _emone_, though she may not sleep there, prior to receiving her band, but after that she must never enter it.

A young unmarried man, who has arrived at the marriageable age, must not eat in the presence of women. He can eat in the bush, or inside the _emone_, but he must not eat on the platform of the _emone_, where women might see him. There appear to be no other customs of mutual avoidance, as, for example, that between son-in-law and mother-in-law, and with reference to other marriage relationships, such as are found in some of the Solomon Islands, and among various other primitive races.

Children and unimportant adults must always pass behind a chief, not in front of him, and when a chief is speaking, everyone else, old and young, must be silent.

Young men and girls associate and talk freely together in public among other people, but no young man would go about alone with a girl, unless he was misconducting himself with her, or wished to do so.

Visiting is purely friendly and social, and there is no personal system of formal and ceremonial visiting, except as between communities or villages.

There do not appear to be any forms of physical salutation, but there are recognised ways in which men address one another on meeting and parting. If A and B meet in the bush, A may say to B, "Where do you come from?", and B will answer, "I come from----." A may then say, "Where are you going to?", and B will reply to this. Then B may put similar questions to A, and will be similarly answered. These questions are not necessarily asked because the questioner is really anxious for information, but are in the nature of a formality,--the equivalent of our "How do you do?" The system of asking and answering these questions, though well recognised as a social form, is not in practice strictly adhered to. Also A, on coming to a village and finding B there, and wishing to salute him, will call him by name, and B will then call A by name. Then A will say, "You are here," and B will reply, "I am here." This form is more strictly carried out than is the other one. Then when A leaves he will say to B, "I am going," and B will answer, "Go." Then B will call A by his name, and A will call B by name, and the formality is finished. If A, being very friendly with B, comes to his village to see him, on A's departure B, and probably B's family, will accompany A out of the village, and will stand watching his departure until he is about to disappear round the corner of the path; and then they will call out his name, and he will respond by calling out B's name.

Gestures may perhaps be included under this heading, though there is apparently but little to be said about the matter. When a question is asked, an affirmative reply is indicated by nodding the head, and a negative one by shaking it; and, though I asked if this was not probably the result of association with people who had been among white men, I was told that it was not so. A negative answer is also often expressed by shrugging the shoulders, and a kind of grimace with the lips. The nodding of the head to a negative question, such as "Are you not well?" signifies assent to the negative, that is, that he is not well, and so vice-versa with the shaking of the head.