HUNSTEIN 99 toothy mouth that are carved through.12 The caretaker of the April River hunting settlement in Hunter’s photograph (fi g. 12) holds another example of this type. This binary distinction is more general than absolute. There are intermediate variations between the two kinds of garra, as demonstrated by the National Gallery example illustrated in fi gure 10, which is a quite narrow, concave board with a small central “face.” The uniquely described female garra in the National Gallery’s collection collected by Attenborough at Inaro (fi g. 9) has its eyes pierced through the board, as does another from the same source (fi g. 13). Craig notes that the wider “mask” type such as these was called komkii by the Sanio of Bekapeki.13 There are a number of interpretations for the various elements of the garra. The pointed hooks have been variously suggested to be catfi sh barbels, extended leeches, and the beaks of hornbill birds (Rhyticeros plicatus). Newton noted that the hornbill interpretation may relate to the fact that only older men have the right to eat the fl esh of hornbills, and this particular bird was believed to nest in places where garra bush spirits live.14 The Sanio of Bekapeki interpreted some Bahinemo hooks as birds’ beaks but did not interpret the hooks of their own carvings in the same way. Among them, Craig recorded the term beinafe for the hooks and the central protuberance as mo’u, or breast (fi g. 11).15 This central element has been variously suggested to be the eyes of a cassowary or pig, or representations of either the sun or moon.16 In 1971 at Inaro, when three of the National Gallery’s garra were collected (fi gs. 9, 13, 16), Ray Langford17 was informed that garra represent a kind of insect, a weevil whose grub is found in the trunk of the sago palm.18 Field collector and oceanic art dealer Chris Boylan visited the northern Bahinemo villages of Yigei and Wagu several times in the early to mid-1990s. At Wagu, Boylan discussed garra sculpture with an elderly man who described the hook points as being “magic spears.” This man also commented that the fl ickering shadows cast by the light of the fi re in the men’s house projecting across the garra and onto the walls revealed the living spirit believed to inhabit the carving.19 FIG. 10 (left): Garra. Bahinemo, probably Namu village, near the Salumei River, Hunstein Range, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. Collected by Wayne Heathcote; ex Philip Goldman, c. 1969–1970. Wood. H: 105 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, inv. 2011.951. This garra is an intermediate form between a “mask” and profi le hook type. It also has a small “double face” motif sharing one set of eyes at the center. Douglas Newton suggests this is a style from the Namu village area. FUNCTIONS OF THE HOOK CARVINGS There is little information recorded about the functions of garra. We know that they were not to be seen by the uninitiated and that their spirits were believed to have assisted in hunting game, fi shing, and in warfare. To these ends, the spirit was appealed to through ritual propitiation, part of which was the offering of betel (areca palm) nuts and wild ginger leaves attached to the hooks or, if the garra has one, the central hole. There is a little more information regarding their use as part of male initiation for both the Bahinemo and in Bekapeki. The carvings were revealed to initiates before they could take their place as adults in their community. Aspects of initiation no doubt varied from place to place, FIG. 11 (above): Cult hooks offered for sale at Bekapeki village, April River, 1972. Photo courtesy of Barry Craig, image ref BK12:18. but we know that part of the initiation process for Bahinemo men was to have the tip of the nose pierced so they could wear small wooden nose pegs or the “horns” of the rhinoceros beetle (various forms of dynastine scarabaeids) pointing up and forward (fi g. 17).20 Newton provides the most descriptive use of garra in male initiations, which, as noted above, he observed in Wagu.21 During a period of seclusion, the young men were painted with ochre, which has an association of being “the ‘mark’ of the sacred objects.” During the event, Newton recorded that garra were also decorated with
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