Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1910 — FINDS QUEER TRIBE [ARTICLE]

FINDS QUEER TRIBE

Dutch Explorer Tells of Wild Folk in New Guinea. Mysterious Mountain People Who, With Their Pigs, Live In Little Huts Raised Ten Feet From Ground. London.—Mr. H. A. Lorentz, a Dutch explorer, the first white man to penetrate into the mysterious central snow irange of New Guinea, has returned to Europe with a thrilling story of adventures. —— The explorer discovered a mysterious mountain tribe who, with their pigs, lived in little huts raised ten feet from the ground, into which both |the people and Uie animals climbed by iway of notched boards. Doctor Lorentz says: “Suddenly we came acrons a secluded valley which, to our amazeiment, we found to be thickly populated. We were walking In single file (through the twilight shade of the (great forest when we heArd mysterl'ous calls. Suddenly a small band of (savages, all armed with bows and ar>rows and stone axes, ran out from the ijungle. They approached us with hands outstretched, offering us sweet potatoes as a sign of' friendship. "On our arrival in their village the ipeople performed a curious ceremony, by which they made us blood brothers. (They sacrificed a pig and smeared each of us on the forehead with the creature's blood. This proved a somewhat awkward attention in the cases of our Mohammedan soldiers, but at my earnest request they agreed to submit, provided that we allowed them

immediately afterwards to undergo ceremonial washing. “These people lived in little huts, all of which were raised about ten feet from the ground, access being obtained by a notched pole. These little-huts we found to be divided into two, one-half being used for domestic animals—mostly pigs, which presumably, also climbed the rough ladder —and the other half by the people themselves. These natives are not dwarfs. We noticed that some of the worsen had the middle finger of the left hand cut off. “We had no means of discovering the meaning of this, although it was blear that the mutilation was made during youth. Many of the men, too, had the upper portion of one of their

ears removed. Unlike all Papuan tribes I have met they were entirely free from skin disease. None of whom wore a stitch of clothing. While the tribes on the coast never smoke, these mountain people grow tobacco, which they smoke in their pipes.