Identifier: tamingnewguinea00monc (find matches)
Title: Taming New Guinea;
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Monckton, C. A. W. (Charles Arthur Whitmore), 1872-1936
Subjects: Papuans Papua New Guinea
Publisher: New York : Dodd, Mead and Co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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e rolled upon coral beaches, at last we made thecomplaining German traders Station, and I asked him what allthe trouble was rabout, as his Station appeared quite happy andpeaceful, and the natives very friendly. A few months ago Ihad a few cocoanuts stolen, he said. Well, I asked, whatabout all your stories of imminent battle, murder, and suddendeath ? I thought that it was time the Government lookedme up, and I had better pitch things a bit strong, or they wouldnot bother, he had the ineffable impudence to remark. YouGerman swine, I said, you have made me risk my life, andthe lives of a dozen men, coming here, merely to pander to yoursense of importance; if I can get the slightest excuse, Ill gaolyou. Unfortunately I could get no excuse for doing so ;accordingly, I had to content myself with blackguarding him uphill and down dale before leaving, and telling him that thenatives could eat him, before I would move a man to hisassistance again. If he had been a native, I could have given
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MASKS OF TIIK KAIVA KlKi SOCIETY, Ml RESIDENT MAGISTRATE 119 him a fortnights gaol for sending a lying report, but unfortunatelythat law did not apply to white men. Whilst in the Gulf, I received constant complaints about thedoings—or rather misdoings—of a strange nomadic inland tribe,called by the coastal natives Kuku Kuku ; people who apparentlyappeared unexpectedly, and hovered about the coastal villages,snapping up stray men, women, and children, and cutting ofttheir heads ; then vanishing into the unknown. I promised thevillagers that, in the near future, the Government would dealwith the Kuku Kuku people, but that I had too much otherwork at present ; in any case, my whalers complement was notsufficient for an inland expedition. I also heard of the existence of a secret society called theKaiva Kuku, the members of which assembled fully disguised instrange masks and cloaks, and went through secret ceremoniesand ritual; branches and agents of it also existed in every coastalvi

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