Page:Picturesque New Guinea.djvu/329

 with long poles, and caulked with dried banana leaves. A stage is made all round, so that the sailors can work her without getting inside of the bulwarks. Masts of mangrove, with the roots at right angles, are stepped on to the centre, and large sails made of mats all sewn together, and shaped like crabs' claws, are fixed for working with ropes made from the bark of the large yellow hybiscus. The anchor is a large stone made fast with long canes, sometimes 100 fathoms in length. Fore and aft are small houses, where the captain, mates, and boatswain sleep or smoke. A day or two before leaving they sail about the harbour with all the young swells, male and female in killing costumes, on board, and then they have a hearty song, with drums beating, and bodies swaying, and the ladies' petticoats flying about. The wind is favourable, the cargo on board, and the [sic] pole out a mile or two to the eastward: then set sail and away, whilst friends at home remain to weep. With a fine breeze following fast, the men most worked are the helmsmen, three or four of them with large paddles standing aft whilst the others are drum-beating and singing the following Hues taught Edae by the spirit:—

There are many others, but the above is sufficient. When the port where bound is reached, they are received with great delight, pigs and dogs are killed for the reception feast, after which they distribute their pottery, to be paid for when ready to take their return journey. They sleep on the lakatoi, the shore people cooking them food and taking it to them. They ascend the rivers, cut down large trees, and make canoes of them to take home laden with sago. On the return journey they will have as many as fourteen and fifteen canoes for one lakatoi. Now they go wealthier than formerly, taking with them tomahawks, knives, bead