Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/306

 THE POETRY OF THE KIWAI PAPUANS.

BY G. LANDTMAN, PH.D.

{Read at Meeting, April i6th, 19 13.)

The Kiwai people live at the mouth of the Fly river in British New Guinea.

These Papuans have a rich treasure of legends and myths, showing the wonderful imagination with which they are gifted. During my stay among them I collected over 800 tales, variants included. But the folklore of the Kiwai Papuans also comprises a great store of what we cannot but style poetry, due allowance being made for the low stage of culture of a people ignorant of writing. It is of this branch of folklore that I wish to give a few examples and to try to throw some light upon its nature, as far as I have understood the native texts, so strange and crude to the European mind and so easily misinterpreted.

In studying the native poetry we find that it comprises various kinds of songs, and, further, that almost all these songs belong to some ceremony or dance, and that they are sung in unison. In some cases the dancers themselves sing and beat the drums, but in others there are special drummers who sit on the ground, beating their instruments and singing, while the dance goes on in front of them, as, for instance, in the taera or ho?'io7'nic ceremony. On this occasion the men are dressed up to represent spirits of the dead and dance before the women. Their faces are covered with leaves or masks, and, as the women think they are real spirits, naturally the dancers cannot take part in the singing, since they would be betrayed by their voices.