"By Aeroplane to Pygmyland" Accounts of the 1926 Smithsonian-Dutch Expedition to New Guinea

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Journal of Stanley Hedberg
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October 23, 1926 : Explorators Camp/Tombe Village


Saturday
October 23
1926

The pictures of yesterday turned out splendidly. We have some good negatives. That is the first thing on the programe [sic] after our breakfast of rice, java goula [sic, = gula (Malay, = “sugar”)] and coffee with a few friend [sic] spuds as dessert. We looked over the pictures and then Dick loaded the cameras and with our new friends were [sic] off to the village where we shot movies and stills all morning. Got some good close ups of a Pygmy making an arm bracelet, another playing his sort of jew[’]s harp, close ups of Igoone’s daughter in her new dress, a good close up showing the marriage ceremony of cutting off one of the bride’s fingers with a stone axe (not the actual cutting but an explanation of how and why it was done.) a demonstration of cutting down a tree with a stone axe and also showing a soldier chopping firewood with his sabre and a pygmy doing it for him with a stone axe. We also shot some pictures around camp of the new people this morning. This afternoon they came over and traded with Matt. They sit around our leanto and admire with open eyes and mouths everything over and over again. The typewriter gets their attention always. The large Elgin watch which we took from the aeroplane impressed them immensely and when they heard it tick they shrank back from it for it appeared to be living and mysterously [sic] unknown to them. One of the older chaps whom we call most excellent King Solomon had great difficulty in getting accustomed to a match box. He was shown how to open it a dozen times or more but despite that he could never seem to get the combination. The first time he tried to light his cigarette alone he almost put the match in his mouth instead of the cigarette. He dropped the box and let the cigarette fall from his mouth and jumped around not knowing exactly just what to do until it burned his fingers. The others who have accustomed themselves to using matches now and who have been around here for some time got a great laugh from his antics {F4.54} as did we. We spent considerable time with them over the magazines showing them the Saturday Evening Post, Liberty, Life and Aero Digest. The Post is the favorite and dogs and menfolks with women third are favorites in line in the publications. They have great discussions over the dogs, bullsunder sot being the most noticeable. When a terrior [sic] was pointed out or a shephard [sic] they recognize them more like their own dogs. Everytime a newcommer [sic] comes now he must be shown the dogs in the magazine and we have to put on a special shooting contest with the rifles. They are always afraid and run away to the laughter of the others who have been accustomed to the shooting but who take care to be a safe distance away from the person who is pulling the trigger. The camera tripod which can be extended more than an arm[’]s length is always good for intense interest but they won’t let you do any of the things we do with it such as running it into our foot or stomach by pressing the button. Nothing doing, one finally was brave enough to let me put it in his back but he stood trembling for fear I would hurt or I wouldn’t be able to get it out again. I was in the women’s house today for the first time. It is much smaller than the men’s house and is bare of everything but the fire place in the middle of the room. A short [sic] of a rack of some sort[,] evidently to hang their bags on[,] was the only difference. The babies are put in their large net bags in the morning and are carried around on the women’s backs with the strap part being hung across the top of the head. There they lay [sic] all day long and it isn’t very often one hears them cry. When they do the Mother pays no attention but just says Bur’rrup with her lips similar to the call used when they call the pigs. They are careful to keep them in the bags and out of the sun. When we had several of the women and their babies down in the garden yesterday taking pictures and they would [not] get in the sun with the babies or take them out in the sun for anything. [sic] Sun was bad for them[,] they indicated. {F4.55} The men folks stay out of the sun most of the day too and it is hard to get them from the shade of their houses or trees. The women work in the fields in the sun most of the day though and the children are always on their backs in their bags. They are always in the position though that the child does not get the full rays of the sun. These newcomers are all small people and we have been able to make some good movies of them. A new group of pygmies from Ocabu arrived at Dusk. They came over and paid their respects and then left.




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