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

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Journal of Matthew Stirling
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September 12, 1926 : Explorators Camp/Tombe Village


September 12th

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"The Pygmies were absorbed in interest when the usual active scene of the Dyaks making camp began."
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This morning while the pygmies were gathered for their morning trading a Dyak carrier came up the trail announcing the {p. 251} approach of the transport, and in about half an hour twenty more Dyaks came with a much needed food supply and notes from the rest at Head Camp. The Pygmies were absorbed in interest when the usual active scene of the Dyaks making camp began. They never tire of watching the Dyaks making camp. They at once produced a pig, which was ceremoniously killed and handed over to them. During the rest of the day the Dyaks were busy enlarging the clearing and building a new shelter for themselves so with more than fifty native visitors looking on we had the most active day our camp has yet seen. Trading went on at a great rate and our present supply of cowries is getting quite low but on the other hand our pile of ethnologica is getting correspondingly high.




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