or, 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 mo
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