Sophisticated Natives

VISITING a coastal village during the Festive Season (writes a New Guinea resident) I was guest-of-honour at the “House Picture.”

A bed-sheet was rigged up and the operator stood behind it with a “shoot lamp,” while the artists performed in silhouette. The whole affair was highly amusing and caused roars of laughter, especially as the “announcer,” mimicking a white man, announced what was hap pening in Pidgin English.

I was warned not to tell the “Kiap,” otherwise I would also be reported for playing “Lucky”—that notorious, “sudden death” coons’ game. I had played it. I was anxious to procure a couple of sticks Of tobacco to reward a native, and the only way of obtaining it was by entering the gambling school in an attempt to win two sticks from the pool. It cost me two shillings before I got my tobacco.

A table-tennis table was in the middle of the village, chairs arranged around it, and the game proceeded quietly among friends in the moonlight.