Mamus

[BURTON John]

I have just moved, but I will catch up with the messages that came in during
the last few days as soon as I can.

Has anyone opinions on 'mamus'? This word was widely used through Western
Province for village headman and is now obsolete, like 'luluai' (except at
Yapsei!?). 

Q1. How widespread was mamus through Papua? 

Q2. Does anyone have a better etymology than that it was Jukes on HMS Fly
who landed on Erub Island in Torres Strait in 1848 and met a man called
'Mammoos' (Mamus), the headman of Keriam village, and that he became the
eponymous originator of the term?

Q3. If inclined to feel that mamus should in fact be assigned to Police
Motu, a point against it is that this was never spoken in the Strait where
'ailan tok' prevails, a very close cousin of TP. Anyone have an opinion?

John Burton
Senior Anthropologist
Torres Strait Regional Authority
PO Box 261 Thursday Island
Queensland 4875 Australia
tel +61 7 4069 0700
fax +61 7 4069 2582