The Mafulu eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 349 pages of information about The Mafulu.

The Mafulu eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 349 pages of information about The Mafulu.

If the Fathers’ linguistic boundary lines are substantially correct, each of the two terms Kovio and Kamaweka, as now used, would appear to cover more than one linguistic area; and in any case these terms seem to have widened and to have become somewhat indefinite.  It will be seen on reference to the map and to Father Egedi’s information as to the Oru Lopiku and Boboi boundaries that both Mt.  Yule and Inavaurene are within the area which the Fathers call Oru Lopiku, but that Inavaurene is not far from their Boboi area.  I suggest that it would be convenient for the present, pending further investigation and delimitation on the spot, and until we know something of the difference between the languages of the Oru Lopiku and Boboi people, to adopt the term Kovio as a general name for, and confine it to, the two areas Boboi and Oru Lopiku; though for linguistic purposes the names Boboi and Oru Lopiku, which at present indicate very little to us, may eventually be accepted and come into general use.

The Koiari people of the foothills and lateral spurs behind the Motu area, also referred to from time to time in Dr. Seligmann’s writings, must be eastern next door neighbours of the Fuyuge-speaking people, the western boundary of these Koiari being stated by him to be the Vanapa river, [5] and they being in fact regarded by him as being the eastern neighbours of the natives of “the mountains inland of Mekeo Nara and Kabadi,” [6] and being referred to by him as being the people from whose district the Kamaweka and Kuni are reached by “passing westward”—­the word used is “eastward,” but this is obviously a printer’s error—­“in the mountains, keeping roughly parallel with the coast.” [7]

Turning to the question of the Fuyuge boundary, Dr. Strong says that the Fuyuge people occupy the upper waters of the St. Joseph river, [8] and he is quoted by Dr. Seligmann as having stated that the Afoa language “is spoken in the villages on Mt.  Pizoko and the northern slopes of Mt.  Davidson,” and that “the Afoa villages lie to the north of the Fuyuge-speaking communities, stretching westward for an unknown distance behind Mt.  Davidson.” [9] If the information given to me verbally by the Fathers of the Mission of the Sacred Heart and the red linguistic boundary lines roughly drawn by them, and introduced into my map, be correct, these statements require modification, for according to the Fathers the Mafulu or Fuyuge-speaking area does not include any part of the St. Joseph river, as its extreme north-westerly corner lies to the east of the junction—­close to the boundary line between the Afoa (Ambo) and the Kuni areas—­of the rivers Alabula and Aduala, and Mt.  Pizoko is within the Fuyuge area, and not within that of the Afoa, and Mt.  Davidson is within the Boboi area.  I think that, though the Fathers’ lines are admittedly not exact, they and the information supplied by the Fathers to me are likely to be more trustworthy in these respects, especially as regards boundaries near to the actual Mafulu villages, than the earlier statements of Dr. Strong, as they are the outcome of recent and careful investigation; and, as regards Mt.  Pizoko, I may mention that Dr. Strong himself seems to have subsequently regarded that mountain as being within the Mafulu district, [10] which brings it into the Fuyuge area.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Mafulu from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.