NEW POMERANIA (Ger. Neu-Pommern, formerly New Britain, native Birara)

This article appears in Volume V19, Page 532 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NAN-NEW

NEW POMERANIA (Ger. Neu-Pommern, formerly New Britain, native Birara) , an island of the Bismarck Archipelago, N.E. of New

Guinea

GUINEA

in the Pacific Ocean, about 6 S., 150 E., in the administration of German New

Guinea

GUINEA

. It is

crescent

CRESCENT (Lat. crescens, growing)

-shaped, about 330 M. long, and, except where the Willaumez Peninsula projects northward, nowhere more than 6o m. wide. The north-eastern extremity consists of the broad, irregular Gazelle Peninsula, joined to the main mass by a narrow neck. The total area is about 9500 sq. m. The island is in

great

GREAT

part unexplored. The coasts are in some parts precipitous; in others the mountains recede inland, and the

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

is flat and bordered by coral reefs. The formation appears otherwise to be volcanic, and there are some active craters. The greatest

elevation

ELEVATION

occurs towards the westabout 65oo ft. There is a rich tropical vegetation, and a number of considerable streams water the island. The

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

centre is Herbertsh8he at the north of the Gazelle Peninsula; it is the seat of the

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

of German New Guinea (see NEw GUINEA).
The natives are Melanesians, resembling their Papuan kinsmen of eastern New Guinea, and are a powerful well-formed race. Their villages are clean and well kept. Unlike their Papuan relatives, the islanders are unskilled in carving and pottery, but are clever farmers and fishermen, constructing ingenious fishing weirs. They have a fixed monetary system consisting of strings of cowries. They per-form complicated surgical operations with an obsidian knife or a shark's tooth. The common dead are buried or exposed to sharks on the reefs; bodies of chiefs are exposed in the fork of a tree.
Justice is executed, and taboos, feasts, taxes, &c., arranged by a mysterious disguised figure, the duk-duk. The population is divided into two exogamous classes. The children belong to the class of the mother, and when the father dies go to her

village

VILLAGE

for support, the land and fruit trees in each

district

DISTRICT

being divided between the two classes. There are several dialects, the construction resembling Fijian, as in the pronominal suffixes in singular, triad and plural; the numerals, however, are Polynesian in character.

End of Article: NEW POMERANIA (Ger. Neu-Pommern, formerly New Britain, native Birara)

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