Origin Of Name Of

Papua

T*HE origin of the name “Papua” is the subject of an interesting letter from Mr. A. J. Vogan, F.R.G.S. He says that he had disliked the name, because “it had no ancestral rights and meant noth ing.”

“But now,” he continues, “I have just found that its claim to historical pres tige is beyond Question. In a very old world map ‘par Guillaume De Lisle,’ show ing the ‘new’ discoveries, made in 1739 by Lozier Bouvet, for the French Com pagnie des Indes, the outlined form of New Guinea is depicted joining with Northern Australia which is named from which, doubtless, our Gulf of Carpentaria.

“But here we find, printed: ‘Nouvi Guinee ou Terre des Papous, which means, I suggest, the Land of Paw-paws, or as our French friends (and most Is lands folk) have it ‘Papaye.’

“This fruit was originally called by the discoverers, the Portuguese, ‘Mamao? from their resemblance to the mammil lary-glands; and its original, or native name, was given for similar reasons, and approximated to that given the island on Bouvet’s old map. This is interesting to anyone afflicted with the archaeologi cal complaint; because the fruit origin ally came from Mexico, where, in 1677, an Indian child was called “Papoose,’ and ‘beyond the Philippines,’ in 1578, by Lindschoten, who knew it by the name ‘Paparios.’ L. C. D’Oyle informs us re garding North America: ‘ln that queer contrivance the squaws carry their papooses.’ In Persia (past and present) the bag-like slipper is called ‘Papoosh’— all another instance of how our names and civilisation originated from one centre.”

EDITORIAL NOTE: Our old friend’s hypothesis is ingenious, but it does not agree with that of at least four or five writers on the early history of the Pacific. They have explained that the original name given to New Guinea, probably by Antonio de Abreu (Portugese) in 1511. or by d© Meneses in 1526, was “Os Papuas.” which had some reference to the natives’ bushy hair. Thus the “Handbook of Papua,” published in 1912: “In 1526 another Portugese, Don Jorge de Meneses, sailing from the Malay Peninsula to take charge of the Moluccas, instead of adopting the known route to the south of Borneo, sailed round the north of that island and Gilolo, and so overshot his mark that he came to a land inhabited by natives called ‘Papuas,’ a name given to them by the inhabitants of the Moluccas, on account of their frizzly hair.’

Philatelists will be interested in the new Paris Exhibition 1937 series of stamps, just issued for French Oceania.

The series consists of six values: 1 franc 50 centimes, and 90, 50, 40, 30 and 20 centimes—each a different design. The new Exhibition issue is probably the same in design for all the colonies of France, the name of the colony, in each case, being printed in the space left for that purpose as was the practice in the old colonial issues before picture stamps characteristic of each colony became the vogue.