25 November 2014 / leggypeggy

Asaro mudmen do their best to scare the begeezus out of us

Asaro, Best of PNG, fire, Goroka Show, masks, mudmen, Papua New Guinea, travel, villages

A mudman emerges through the smoke

Once our hosts made it completely clear that we were most welcome in their Asaro tourist village, they brought out their mudmen to scare the begeezus out of us.

Of course, having seen the mudmen at Papua New Guinea’s Goroka Show and knowing a bit about their background, we all felt reasonably unthreatened.

Most of the history of mudmen is based on legend. The story goes that Asaro villagers were defeated by an enemy tribe and forced to flee and hide in the Asaro River until nightfall when they could attempt an escape.

A mudman attacks

You should have seen Poor John jump

By chance, when the villagers rose from the riverbanks in the evening mist, their bodies were so covered in mud that the enemy mistook them for spirits. Most tribes in Papua New Guinea are terrified of spirits, so the enemies ran off, and the Asaro escaped to their own village.

Some of the enemy tribesmen were still lurking in the Asaro village, and when the ‘spirits’ returned ‘home’ the invaders assumed they were being counter-invaded, so fled back to their own village.

Mudmen getting ready

The mudmen circle

Ever since the Asaro have continued to use this dusky illusion to ward off their enemies (or entertain visitors).

The big difference is the addition of masks. Legend says the mud of the Asaro River is poisonous, so instead of covering their faces with the mud, the Asaro make fearsome masks using homemade clay.

So all this background leads us to the mudmen ‘dance’ put on for our group.

Traditional firebuilding not working

The cigarette lighter works

Because our mudman performance took place in the middle of the day, our hosts decided to light a fire to create a bit of mystery and artificial mist.

The actual fire-making process was rather embarrassing for our hosts and totally hilarious for us. They tried and tried and tried to get the dry grass going using traditional fire-making techniques, but nothing worked. In the end, everyone was laughing and the fire builders accepted the offer of a cigarette lighter to do the job.

Then enter the mudmen. They weren’t hugely scary, but when they lunge at you with a spear, you do jump a bit. Ask Poor John who was one of their first ‘targets’.

I was lucky enough to see them getting ready down near Poor John’s and my hut, so noticed the good humour and enthusiasm they showed before employing their ‘scare’ tactics.

After the performance the main, and supposedly scariest, mudman removed his mask so we could see his soot-striped face, and feel and hold his homemade mask. Those darn things weigh almost 10 kilos (22 pounds). Can you imagine jumping around in one of those?