Guadalcanal's Undiscovered People

Just Another Tall Tale

By A. H. Wilson, Formerly Commissioner of Land in British Solomon Islands.

TO the Question of whether an undis covered people inhabit the moun tains of central Guadalcanal (Feb.

PIM), my answer is an emphatic No!

The subject has cropped up at regular intervals over the past 30 years, to my knowledge. I first heard it discussed in May, 1919, while undergoing a term of quarantine on the SS Mindini in Sydney Harbour, prior to my first trip to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate.

Some of the old hands on board amused themselves by recounting to the new chum, hair-raising tales of life in the Solomon Islands, of which the Guadal canal “Mumu” man was one.

During my early years in the Protector ate I frequently heard mention of the matter, both from natives and Europeans.

As my work took me into some of the most remote places, I was sufficiently in terested to test out some of these rumours, but invariably arrived at the stage where “somebody had heard the details from somebody else who had &c. &c.”

On more than one occasion a sample of material purporting to be the hair of these strange humans was produced, and I know of instances of gullible Europeans having purchased these from natives as curios. One such sample, exactly similar to others I had seen, found its way to Tulagi in 1935 or thereabout, with fear some stories of the manner in which it had come into the possession of its native owner. Examination by an Officer of the Department of Entomology very quickly revealed that the sample was of vegetable origin.

Prior to the discovery of gold on Guadalcanal by S. F. Kajewski, very little was known of the interior of the island.

Beyond a vary rare trip by the Govern ment Officer, or a not-so-rare trip by certain missionaries, Europeans had not ventured very far beyond the coastal fringes of the island. The gold discovery, however, changed all that. Prospectors penetrated to the very rough and mountainous area said to be the habitat of the mystery race, but brought back no information of anything out of the ordinary in the way of human life.

MY official duties took me into the in terior of Guadalcanal fairly fre quently between 1932 and the early war years. In 1938, while on an inspection trip, I made an attempt, from one of the prospecting camps, to locate a route to the top of the highest mountain on Guadalcanal, erroneously known as “Popomanasui,” shown on the Admiralty chart as being 8,005 feet high. As my route would traverse the area said to be the home of the Mumu race, I took the op portunity on that occasion of investigat ing the story so far as I was able.

I failed in the attempt to reach the

top of the mountain, the correct name of which is “Hai-a-cha,” but from the top of a lower mountain range, at an altitude of about 6,000 feet (the real “Popoman asui ’) I was able by observation to locate a route by which the higher mountain was later climbed by Charles Kuper, son of Henry Kuper, who recently died at Santa Anna, BSI.

I had as a guide a very old but sur prisingly active chief named Rangaki bona, from the central mountain district of Guadalcanal, with a number of his retainers as carriers. During the five days trip I questioned these natives very closelv on every aspect of the possibility of exist ence of any strange race, past or present and learned that the majority of natives of that area do firmly believe that such a race exists at the present time, and in the country we were traversing.

These unusual people are known as Mumu, Moka, or Mola, and are supposed lon g-baired, large-eyed creatures with long sharp teeth and finger-nails.

Their mode of progression is to hop on the toes of both feet simultaneously, with hands carried at waist level and finger nails pointed forward. (A demonstration given). When hungry or disturbed they emit a cry somewhere between the wail ing of a baby and the bark of a large savage dog. (Attempts at imitation, but rather unsuccessful).

One was said to have been burned to death when the natives of Vololo, a village below Lion’s Head Mountain, fired a grass patch.

When was this? “Comparatively re cently,” I was told. * Could I visit the place and perhaps re trieve some of the bones? “Oh, Yes!” At least I could see the grass, which had grown up again since the fire, but never the less should be adequate proof of the veracity of the story—but as for bones, well, there just weren’t any. Perhaps the thing had no bones.”

I QUESTIONED Rangakibona at some length, in the absence of his followers , . and arrived at the conclusion that the tales told have no foundation whatever in fact, either 1 as to a present or a past race. Our own children (and I believe in some parts of the so-called civilised world, have a belief in the existence of fames, goblins, &c. The Guadalcanal mountain natives, most of whom greatly resemble children in some respects, simply have an equivalent belief. And if a little exaggeration or manipulation of evidence will help to make a good story done? mPr6SS an audience ’ what harm is That the repetition of the tale with its various embellishments will sometimes convince the natives themselves is under standable in the circumstances.