No New Birds
Or Animals Were Obtained, But In Their Ornaments The Feathers Of
Paradise Birds Were Seen, Showing, As Might Be Expected, That
These Birds Range Far In This Direction, And Probably All Over
New Guinea.
It is curious that a rudimental love of art should co-exist with
such a very low state of civilization.
The people of Dorey are
great carvers and painters. The outsides of the houses, wherever
there is a plank, are covered with rude yet characteristic
figures. The high-peaked prows of their boats are ornamented with
masses of open filagree work, cut out of solid blocks of wood,
and often of very tasteful design, As a figurehead, or pinnacle,
there is often a human figure, with a head of cassowary feathers
to imitate the Papuan "mop." The floats of their fishing-lines,
the wooden beaters used in tempering the clay for their pottery,
their tobacco-boxes, and other household articles, are covered
with carving of tasteful and often elegant design. Did we not
already know that such taste and skill are compatible with utter
barbarism, we could hardly believe that the same people are, in
other matters, utterly wanting in all sense of order, comfort, or
decency. Yet such is the case. They live in the most miserable,
crazy, and filthy hovels, which are utterly destitute of anything
that can be called furniture; not a stool, or bench, or board is
seen in them, no brush seems to be known, and the clothes they
wear are often filthy bark, or rags, or sacking.
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