The Mafulu | Page 6

lines are not continued so as to surround
and complete the definition of the areas which they indicate; but this
defect is unavoidable, as the Fathers' map only covered a relatively
small area, and even in that map the lines were not all carried to its
margin. It will also be noticed that, though the Fathers introduce the
two names Oru Lopiku and Boboi as being linguistically distinct, they

have not indicated the boundary line between the two areas. Father
Egedi, however, informed me that this boundary passes along the ridge
of hills south of the Ufafa river as far as Mt. Eleia, and thence along the
Ukalama river to the Kuni boundary. The Ukalama river is not shown
in the Geographical Society's map; but I may say that it is shown in the
Fathers' map as rising in Mt. Eleia, and flowing thence in a
south-easterly direction, and so joining the St. Joseph river close to
Dilava. The broken red line upon my map does not appear in the
Fathers' map, but has been added by me to indicate what, I understand,
the Fathers believe to be a continued boundary, so far as ascertained, of
the Fuyuge linguistic area, called by them the Mafulu area, to which I
am about to draw attention.
The term Mafulu is the Kuni pronunciation of Mambule, which is the
name, as used by themselves, of the people who live in a group of
villages within and near the north-westerly corner of the area of the
Fuyuge-speaking people, whose Papuan language, so far as ascertained,
appears, subject to local dialectal differences, to be the same, and may,
I was informed, be regarded as one common language throughout the
Fuyuge area.
The Fathers of the Mission have adopted the name Mafulu in a wider
sense, as including all the people with whom they have come in contact
of the Fuyuge-speaking area; and, though my investigations, which
form the subject-matter of this book, have been conducted only in the
neighbourhood of Mafulu itself, I was assured that, so far as the Fathers
have been able to ascertain, all these Fuyuge people not only have
similar languages, but also are substantially similar in physique and in
culture. My observations concerning the Mafulu people may therefore,
if this statement is correct, be regarded as applying, not only to the
inhabitants of the portion of the north-westerly corner of the Fuyuge
area in which the Mafulu group of villages is placed, but to those of the
whole of the north-westerly portion of the area, and generally in a
greater or less degree of accuracy to those of the northerly and
north-easterly parts of the area, and possibly the southerly ones also.
The boundaries of this Fuyuge-speaking area can hardly be regarded as

definitely ascertained; and the discrepancies, even as regards the
courses of the rivers and the positions of the mountains, which appear
in the few available maps make it difficult to deal with the question.
The area, so far as actually ascertained by the Fathers of the Mission,
roughly speaking, covers, and seems to extend also some distance to
the south or south-west of a triangle, the western apex of which is the
junction of the river Kea with the river Aduala (a tributary of the St.
Joseph), [2] whose north-eastern apex is Mt. Albert Edward, and whose
south-eastern apex is Mt. Scratchley. It includes the valley of the
Aduala river and its streams (except those flowing into it from the north
in the region of the western apex of the triangle) within its northern
boundary, and the valley of the upper Vanapa river and its rivers and
streams in the neighbourhood of its eastern boundary; but this eastern
boundary has been found to extend also so as to include the upper
valley of the river Chirima. How far the area extends to the south or
south-west of the triangle above mentioned appears to be uncertain.
The linguistic area to the north of the Mafulu or Fuyuge people is that
of the Ambo people, who are somewhat similar in appearance to the
Mafulu, and whose language is also Papuan, and, though differing from
the Mafulu language, is, I was told, somewhat similar to it in
grammatical construction and as regards a few of its words. The area to
the west is that of the Kuni people, whose language is Melanesian, but
whose ordinary modes of life are, I was informed, more like those of
the Mafulu than are those of the Papuan-speaking Ambo. The areas to
the east and south cannot be so definitely stated, but are dealt with
below.
As regards these Ambo people I may, in view of divergences of names
which appear in maps, explain that Ambo is a contraction of Ambore,
and is the name given