Lot 155 Dα

Cf. Kelm, H., "Kunst vom Sepik", vol.2, 1966, figs.166 and 167, for two very similar shields in the Berlin Ethnological Museum collected on the Kaiserin-Augusta-Fluss-Expedition of 1912/13. The shields are described as coming from Kara (as Ngala village was named on Walter Behrmann’s map of the time).

In "Crocodile and Cassowary" (New York, 1971, p.36) the author, Douglas Newton, writes:
The main weapons of the Nggala were shields, spears, and bows and arrows. Spears were inaugurated with magic songs shields were of even greater importance. At the conclusion of the headhunting celebrations, the elder men held a sort of contest in which younger men were allotted the right to carry shields. The women and children were sent away by the elders, who told them that enemies were coming to attack the village: but the real reason was that they should not see the shields. This was because they were identified with major ancestral spirits, some of them at least water-spirits. First, the small boys came singing and dancing up to the ceremonial house fence, followed by the young men, who were then given spears and shields. The fighters who were qualified to stand guard at the watch-posts carried out a mock attack in groups of two or three, and the elders judged the manner in which the young men conduct themselves. On the basis of this — cooperation with partners seems to have been an important criterion — they gave shields to the adept, and refused them to the less capable.