Bamboo penis box or phallocrypt, decorated with an incised and stained pattern of interlocking scrolls.
This comes from the British Ornithologists’ Union Expedition to Dutch New Guinea (1909-1911). Captain Rawlings had previously been a member of the Younghusband Expedition to Tibet. The BOU team visited the Tapiro in November 2010 (Ballard, Vink and Anderson p 29-30) at the foothills of the Central range of Mt Wilhelmena. Rawlings wrote up his account in ‘Explorations in Dutch New Guinea’ The Geographical Journal, 38 (1911) 233-255 and The land of the New Guinea pygmies: an account of the story of a pioneer journey of exploration into the heart of New Guinea (1913), London, Sealey and Service. The most recent account is C Ballard, S Vink and A Ploeg 2001 Race to the snow: photography and the exploration of Dutch New Guinea, 1907-1936, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam The Taipiro were of particular interest to members of the expedition as examples of ‘pygmies’, an interest that continued across the whole island of New Guinea up until the second world war (see Moyne Walkabout in particular and the writings of Chris Ballard).
