HAMBURG SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION RESULTS OF THE SOUTH SEAS EXPEDITION 1908-1910 PUBLISHED BY PROF. DR. G. THILENIUS DIRECTOR OF THE HAMBURGMUSEUM FOR ETHNOLOGY II. ETHNOGRAPHY: B. MICRONESIA AUGUSTIN KRÄMER PALAU VOLUME 1 HAMBURG L. FRIEDERICHSEN & CO. 1917 PALAU BY PROF. DR. AUGUSTIN KRÄMER PALAU VOLUME 1 PART I. THE HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY AND II. GEOGRAPHY WITH 48 FIGURES IN THE TEXT, 2 COLORED AND 11 COLLOTYPE PLATES AND 3 CHARTS HAMBURG L. FRIEDERICHSEN & CO. 1917 COPYRIGHT RESERVED! PRINTED BY J.J. AUGUSTIN IN GLÜCKSTADT AND HAMBURG Information To Users This translation is digitally released on July 01, 2014. This is a work in progress where ongoing edits are still being made before its final publication at the end of 2015. For edits and comments please email to [email protected]. Disclaimer Statement This translation is a product of the Ethnographic Translation Project funded through a Germany government grant in partnership with the Krämer Ethnographic Translation Committee based in Palau. The contents and information contained herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the German Government. The rights for the publication, as a whole or in parts, of all the volumes of the Results of the South Seas Expedition 1908 – 1910 resting solely with the Hamburg Scientific Foundation in Germany. The Krämer Ethnographic Translation Committee would like to thank the Hamburg Scientific Foundation and the Hamburg Ethnological Museum for their assistance and continued support toward this project. //Krämer, Palau, Vol. 1, Plate 1// The Ngarmidlbai of Goreor Village, in which Wilson, Mc Cluer, Cheyne, Semper, Kubary, Micklcho Maclay and many more lived. (Aquarell from E. Krämer) A memorial to the pioneering explorer of Palau JOHANN STANISLAUS KUBARY In thankfulness to my collaborator Mrs. ELISABETH KRÄMER-BANNOW Foreword. In the midst of raging war, I shall proceed with the publication of this monograph on Palau, so that what was almost finished could now be gradually completed with no further delay. Almost 5 years have passed since my wife and I left Palau the last time. In the summer of 1910 we returned to Germany. After finishingmy work in Samoa, I had begun to look to the western Pacific. In 1905, a look at the state of Kubary‘s works in Kiel gave rise to the decision to visit his favorite place, Pelau. The many exceptional things he had collected and published here and there over years and years of work needed to be arranged and expanded. Initially, I only planned a short visit for orientation in order to acquire sufficient knowledge of the place to write a short book. The new task that I set myself was the study of the peculiar ornamentation that, so colorful in form and so incomparable in design, adorns Palauan club-houses and Bai. This was notably neglected by SEMPER and KUBARY, to say nothing of other short-term visitors and explorers. Soon, however, it became apparent—asis often the case—that even aside from that much work remained to be done there. After completing the work on my second voyage through the South Pacific, I was afforded the marvelous opportunity to visit Melanesia. The S.M.S »Planet« was scheduled to depart early in 1906 to conduct scientific exploration during its voyage through the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. I had the good fortune to be affiliated with this expedition as an anthropologist. After ten months, the voyage ended in Matupit in New Pomerania. My wife followed me there since, in a far-sighted manner, I was granted a one-year leave by the German Imperial Navy Office for the purpose of traveling to the Caroline Islands. For this purpose, the Imperial Colonial Office offered me considerable support not only by way of money, but also through its instructions to localauthorities to help me in practical ways. Kommerzienrat Johannes Kahlbaum from Berlin contributed generously toward the cost of this trip, and so the collections from this first voyage shortly before my departure were sent to the Museum for Ethnology in Berlin. In 1908 in Kiel, I first wrote up the results of the voyage // VIII // of the Planet, which appeared in volume V of the Accounts of the Voyage of the Planet. After this I published an outline of our voyage through the Caroline Islands in the Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten (News from the German Protectorates). During the required review of the material, I realized that the material on Palau was not sufficient for a monograph. At this point, Prof. Dr. Thilenius in Hamburg asked whether or not I would like to assume leadership of the large South Pacific expedition planned by the Scientific Foundation of Hamburg during its second year 1909-10. This came just at the right moment. This opportunity appeared to be very promising for the completion of my studies. While making my initial travel arrangements, I suddenly received another inquiry from the Imperial Navy Office as to whether I would be prepared to join the marine expedition, which had lost its leader in New Mecklenburg through his suddendeath, and remain with it tothe end of its journey. As the Imperial Naval Office had been so accommodating of my wishes in 1906, I could hardly refuse. I accepted, provided that my wife would be allowed to join me. This was granted. Thus not only did she share in the great exertions of this journey, but also in those of the second voyage to the Caroline Islands that followed it, especially by lending me a helping hand in the exploration of the Palau Islands, as was noted in the history of their discovery in »Krämer Diar« (p. 160). Her field was not only drawing and painting, but also the exploration of the life of women, their work, housekeeping and cooking, etc. I owe her so much that a great deal of the material should really be published in her own name. The reason for not doing so is that her observations and suggestions impact my work in other ways as well. Therefore, I placed her name next to Kubary‘s in the acknowledgements. The diary entries, however, do not show the actual hardship and dangers this journey entailed. The hundreds of boat rides we took together, rain-drenched and sunburnt, in boats or narrow native canoes, on the rough open sea, or breaking the surf during storms and against strong currents. We took hikes togetheracross red- hot rocks and through swamps and rivers; we traversed barefoot or in light gym shoes slippery hillsides and walked through thick mountain forests and at nightfall ourbed, for months at the time, was the barren floor of a narrow hut softened only by fern and palm leaves; yet we welcomed the hard woodfloor of the Palau bai. The mosquito net was our bed-chamber, shielding us from the environment. Coconut, taro, breadfruit andyams we liked the best and they were our daily food. If we had fish or somehow came upon a piece of pork or a pigeon,this was a special treat. None of that is found in the diary; northe beauty andthe recreation we enjoyed. Science demands results and not experiences; it deliberately leaves feelings and emotions aside. Soon will have to understand those allusions that are found between the lines. Perhaps at a later point in time we shall find the leisure to share a peasant anecdote or two about the sunny days in the Caroline Islands. //IX // My wife published a small booklet on New Mecklenburg together with her drawings with Dietrich Reimer under the title »Bei kunstsinnigen Kannibalen in der Südsee (With Art-Minded Cannibals in the South Pacific)«. Work at the museum, however, and later military service delayed the completion of this monograph. A trip to Spain that I made in the fall of 1913 at the behest of the Scientific Foundation of Hamburg, in order to rummage through the archives to shed light on the history of the discovery of the Caroline Islands also took up some time. As might be seen from what follows, this trip was not in vain. I am much obliged for its success to the director of the Archivo de Indias in Seville, Don Pedro Torres Lanzas. Altogether we stayed in Palau for no longer than nine months, mainly during the rainy season from April to September. My own request to stay longer in one placefor the purpose of writing a monographwithout interruption for at least one full year was not granted. Comparedto my previous work in Samoa, the situation in Palau was complicated by the fact that the language there was still entirely unknown and was far more difficult than the Samoan language. In addition, I had to survey the entire northern part of the island in haste since it was impossible to enter the locations of the villages onto the existing maps. Let it be said that I am all too well aware of the shortcomings of this monograph. If, nevertheless, this work turns out to be more extensive and more detailed in places than the one on Samoa, this is due to experience and longer on-site research work, as well as to the substantial assistance provided by my wife. How good that she painted all important picture stories in color! The typhoon of Nov. 26, 1912, has swept away almost all the houses; in most cases, the old and damaged oneswill never be able to be restored. Camera and paint brush ensured that we would not be denied their sight forever. I was provided with an explanation of those images by my tireless and knowledgeable interpreter William Gibbon, whose father is often mentioned in the history of their discovery, along with Aumang, a close relative of the high chief of Goréor.