In the evening the chiefs of the large Notu village who had in our
absence killed and eaten the two runaway carriers, visited us in
fear and trembling. Monckton told them they must give up to us the
actual murderers and send them up to the residency at Cape Nelson
(or Tufi) within the next three weeks. He did not ask for those
that ate them. Possibly one hundred or more partook of the feast,
and for this they could hardly be blamed, as, being cannibals, it
is quite natural that they should eat fresh meat when they got the
chance. Indeed, our own carriers could not understand why we would
not allow them to eat the bodies of those we had slain.
The next morning we five white men parted company, Walsh and Clark,
with the Mambare and their own police, returning to the north,
while Monckton, Acland and I went southward again to continue our
explorations in another direction.
Our Discovery of Flat-Footed Lake Dwellers.
CHAPTER 11
Our Discovery of Flat-Footed Lake Dwellers.
Rumours at Cape Nelson of a "Duckfooted" People in the Interior -
Conflicting Opinions - Views of a Confirmed Sceptic - Start of the
Expedition - Magnificence of the Vegetation - Friendliness of the
Barugas - The "Orakaibas" (Criers of "Peace") - Tree-huts eighty feet
from the ground-Loveliness of this part of the Jungle - Description
of its Plants - A Dry Season - First Glimpse of Agai Ambu Huts -
Remarkable Scene on the Lake - Flight of the Agai Ambu in Canoes -
Success at Last - A Voluntary Surrender - The Agai Ambu Flat-footed,
not Web-footed - Sir Francis Winter's subsequent Visit and fuller
Description of these People - Their Physical Appearance, Houses,
Canoes, Food, Speech and Customs - My Account Resumed - Making
Friends with the Agai Ambu - A Country of Swamps - Second Agai
Ambu Village - Extraordinary Abundance and Variety of Water-fowl -
Strange Behaviour of an Agai Ambu Women - Disposal of the Dead in
Mid-lake Food of the Agai Ambu - Their Method of Catching Ducks
by Diving for them - An Odd Experience - Mosquitos and Fever -
Last View of Agai Ambu - An Amusing FINALE.
Many were the wild and fantastic rumours we had heard at the Residency
at Cape Nelson, on the north-east coast of British New Guinea,
concerning a curious tribe of natives whose feet were reported to be
webbed like those of a duck, and who lived in a swamp a short way in
the interior, some distance to the north of us. I myself had at first
been inclined to sneer at these reports, but Monckton, the Resident
Magistrate, with his superior knowledge of the Papuans, as the natives
of New Guinea are called, was sure that there was some truth in the
reports, as the Papuan who has not come much in contact with the
white man is singularly truthful though guilty of exaggeration.
