In our land the advent of a new member of the household is usually the occasion of much todo. There are many whispered conferences and grave speculations as to the advisability of this or that, and in many cases Mother is summoned as mistress of ceremonies. Wife’s sister also may attend and shuffle you unceremoniously out of the way of the trained nurse that bustles by, redolent of some carbolic derivative, and utterly unconscious of your existence. You who thought that you were in some remote way interested, and at least partly responsible for the commotion, are thrown temporarily into the discard and sometimes permanently so.
This is not the case in Kia Kia households. There is no trained nurse. There is no an?sthetic. Father’s feelings are not ruffled, for 130he may at the moment be putting on his last coat of ochre or having his hair re-dressed. Indeed, the farrowing of the family sow is of greater moment, for the little pigs may be eaten, while the new human arrival may not. True, after the child is born, it is the object of much affection, but its actual advent is a matter that concerns the mother only. In rare cases, we find, some friend of her own sex does attend, but this is by no means the rule.
A young woman who we know is about to become a mother has just passed our tent on her way into the jungle. She is going there alone. Something in her demeanor tells us that this is to be the natal morning of a new member of the tribe and the other women’s calls to her, as she wends her way up the pathway, are significant. We question Intelligence, who is fast becoming our instructor in things Kia Kia, and he describes to us the method by which these savage mothers bring their offspring into the world. With them nature takes its natural course. There have been no displacements of internal organs in these 131women of the wilds, as there has been in our women who wear tight corsets and destroy the natural poise of the body and loins with high-heeled shoes.
When the woman we have just seen arrives at a place she has prepared the day previous, where she knows she will be left severely alone, she merely lies down and awaits her labor. When the new little being has entered the big outside world in its natural, unassisted way, and the proper time has come, it is the mother who handles the only instrument used in the case,—a sharp sea-shell. She tenderly wraps the child in broad leaves to protect its tender skin from insects, and within an hour, or at most two, after the actual birth she returns proudly to the kampong, carrying the little one, which is the object of much attention from then on.
As Intelligence finishes his description one of his friends comes to the tent and tells him that he is wanted elsewhere. Without excuse or good-by, he rises and follows his friend away, leaving us for the time being to our own devices.
132The women of the shack nearest our tent are engaged in making attaps. These are the thatch coverings with which the natives roof their homes. The process is an interesting one and merits description. Several bundles of cocoanut fronds have been gathered, and it is from these that the women make the rain-proof roof sections. The midrib of each of the fronds is stripped of the narrow sagittate leaves, split to render it less thick and bulky, and cut into lengths of approximately four feet. The leaves are then taken one by one and after being bent over the split midrib are sewn upon it with fibers stripped from the stiff outer skin of the rib. As the fronds selected have leaves nearly thirty inches long, the section of attap when complete is about fourteen inches wide and is as long as the stick which holds it together and supports it in position when put to use. The leaves overlap one another and in consequence the attaps will shed the hardest of the hard rains for which these latitudes are noted. Not only are they admirable shelter from inclement weather, but they are a great protection from the tropical sun which beats fiercely during most of the year upon these shores. Nature is kind to these people, for their every want is supplied by her from a vast storehouse close at hand.
The men occupy their time with revision of their toilets, rather than in doing the chores
Sarah
133An interested observer of the making of the attaps is the ample Sarah, the wabbly-fleshed sow that resides in our neighbor’s shack. We call her Sarah, for that is the closest approximation our language affords to her real name as pronounced by the natives.
Sarah finally decides that enough attaps have been completed for the nonce and with porcine indifference to the plans of others deposits herself with many wheedling grunts directly in front of one of the older women and also upon the attap she is finishing. The woman roars with laughter. She calls the attention of the others to Sarah’s appropriation of the spot and Sarah adds to the conversation several louder grunts, as though demanding attention. The woman slaps Sarah fondly upon her swelling ham and proceeds to perform the operation that the big 134creature has come to enjoy. Taking a short piece of one of the midribs, she scratches Sarah’s back, which brings from the sow grunts of grateful approval.
Moh has struck a deal with one of the women whereby we are kept supplied with cocoanuts, which formerly were brought to us daily but of late have been coming in decreasing numbers. He gives in return for five cocoanuts one empty tomato can or a canned-corn tin. He has an eye to business and the girl who made eyes at him a few days ago is now his customer. Judging from his ............