<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1618858128358.jpeg" alt="&nbsp;Msgr. Firmin M. Schmidt, who grew up in Catharine, with church committee members in 1963 at Tari,&nbsp;Papua New Guinea.&nbsp;Pamela Shaffer, a former Fort Hays State University professor, has compiled a selection of letters from her uncle titled&nbsp;"Letters to Mary: A Missionary Writes Home from New Guinea, 1959-1963." Photos courtesy of editor Pamela Shaffer" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Msgr. Firmin M. Schmidt, who grew up in Catharine, with church committee members in 1963 at Tari,&nbsp;Papua New Guinea.&nbsp;Pamela Shaffer, a former Fort Hays State University professor, has compiled a selection of letters from her uncle titled&nbsp;"Letters to Mary: A Missionary Writes Home from New Guinea, 1959-1963." Photos courtesy of editor Pamela Shaffer</figcaption>
 </figure>By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays PostA recently published book edited by Pamela Shaffer of Hays tells of missonaries' early encounters with the native culture of Papua New Guinea.Pamela Shaffer, a former Fort Hays State University professor, has compiled a selection of letters from her uncle Bishop Firmin M. Schmidt to his sister, Mary, during the bishop's missionary work in Papua New Guinea."Letters to Mary: A Missionary Writes Home from New Guinea, 1959-1963" includes 55 letters that tell of the early missionary work done in&nbsp;Papua New Guinea, which is part of an island north of Australia."I began to read them for just curiosity," Shaffer said. "I found that the letters were quite interesting. I felt that they would be the subject of an interesting book."She said she thought the letters needed a wider audience."It was about a culture that was really not far out of the stone age," she said. "It was just an interesting group of people he was working with."<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1618858487539.jpeg" alt="Editor Pam Shaffer of Hays with her husband, Warren.&nbsp;Pam Shaffer taught English literature and language at Fort Hays State University for 36 years, retiring as a professor in 2013. " />
 <figcaption>Editor Pam Shaffer of Hays with her husband, Warren.&nbsp;Pam Shaffer taught English literature and language at Fort Hays State University for 36 years, retiring as a professor in 2013. </figcaption>
 </figure>Firmin was born in 1918,&nbsp; the youngest of eight children. He was raised in Catharine. He attended St. Joseph Military Academy and St. Joseph's College. Both were co-administered by Capuchin Franciscan priests.&nbsp;Not only did Firmin have a deep faith, but he was committed to intellectual pursuits, winning his class medal for scholarship all four years of high school and both years of junior college, Shaffer said.Firmin was a theological scholar and had not considered himself for missionary work, Shaffer said. However, after being appointed to the position in Papua New Guinea he wrote to his sister that he was honored."While I'm aware of the problems and obstacles involved in this assignment, I am delighted and thrilled," he said in the letter. "I must admit it was a real shock at first; but after I recovered somewhat, I gradually came to realize that this is undoubtedly one of the finest thing that ever happened to me."The missions in New&nbsp;Guinea were in a mountainous area with very rough terrain. Firmin writes in his letters about traveling by plane, Land Rover and motorcycle to visit the remote missions and villages.Firmin described many of native people's beliefs and rituals in his letters to his sister."I think they were fascinating to him and in some ways horrifying," Shaffer said.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1618859364787.jpeg" alt="Confirmation in 1960 at Tari,&nbsp;Papua New Guinea. On the left are people who are being confirmed. On the right are women, sitting with woven bags, holding sweet potatoes or wood.&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Confirmation in 1960 at Tari,&nbsp;Papua New Guinea. On the left are people who are being confirmed. On the right are women, sitting with woven bags, holding sweet potatoes or wood.&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>The natives people lived in long huts made of native materials, such as sticks and feathers. The floors were dirt. The huts were heated with open fires with no way to ventilate the smoke.&nbsp;The women lived separately from the men with the women responsible for caring for small children, tending gardens and raising pigs. The boys moved into the men's hunts between the ages of 5 and 7."They didn't have family life like we would say in the U.S., because the mother, father and children didn't live together," Shaffer said.Pigs were a form of wealth among the people at that time. Protein was a rare part of the native people's diet. Their staple was sweet potatoes, which they called kaukau. Pigs were slaughtered at special occasions, such as weddings, funerals or spirit festivals.Firmin describes a church service in one of his letters and explained the women of the village brought their pigs to the services on ropes.The native people of&nbsp;Papua New Guinea believed in spirits called tambarans. Some of these spirits were good, some were bad and some were both good and bad.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1618859797820.jpeg" alt="A church service in&nbsp;Papua New Guinea during the early 1960s." />
 <figcaption>A church service in&nbsp;Papua New Guinea during the early 1960s.</figcaption>
 </figure>The natives conducted feasts called sing-sings to honor the tambarans. They built long huts — at least 400 yards— for the sing-sings. Pigs were butchered and roasted in pits covered with leaves.Sometimes the pork was undercooked, and Frimin said in his letters that people would be sick after these feasts and he was unsure if this was because they ate too much or they had eaten undercooked pork.The native people also had interesting ways of showing grief, Shaffer said.&nbsp;They would slit their earlobes to show grief, and relatives would cover their bodies with mud, she said."If someone was especially sad about the person that died, they might chop off the first digit of a finger," she said. ... "They did it to show how much they were grieving, but here's the kicker, in doing that they got a bigger portion of pork."<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1618860132801.jpeg" alt="The Paupan people lived in remote, mountain villages. Msgr. Firmin often traveled by plane, Land Rover or motorcycle to the villages." />
 <figcaption>The Paupan people lived in remote, mountain villages. Msgr. Firmin often traveled by plane, Land Rover or motorcycle to the villages.</figcaption>
 </figure>Pigs were also used in bride prices.&nbsp;Beauty was not a factor in selecting a bride. Men were looking for women who were strong and could grow a lot of gardens, Shaffer said.The young man who had his eye on a young women, would go to her father to make a deal on a bride price. In addition to pigs, the bride price could include a specific shell that was used as a currency. The shells were valued about $5 to $6, which was a huge sum at that time, Shaffer said."Sometimes they didn't even tell the young women that she was the object of the bartering," Shaffer said.Young men usually married in their early 20s, and the girls were usually married in their mid- to late teens.If the young woman didn't like the young man, she might run away into the bush in hopes her father would relent and return the bride price.The bride price was an essential part of the papuan economy, and Firmin new that it was a practice the Christian missionaries would have to accept, Shaffer said.Because the Papuan people had no real money system, restitution was literally paid for in blood. If one tribe killed more men in a war than another tribe, the winning tribe would have to offer up the difference in lives to the losing tribe.When the Australian government took over the country, they put a stop to this practice.Shaffer said she hopes readers will not only glean an understanding of the early culture of Papua New Guinea but the persistence and hard work that went into developing the missions on the island.Her uncle did not seek to change the beliefs of the adults, but sought to teach and convert the village children to Christianity, Shaffer said.Priests first started schools for boys on the island, but a group of nuns later joined the missions to offer education to girls. The native&nbsp;Papuan people had no written language."The women were certainly second class. The men always ran the show, but the women always did all of the work," Shaffer said. "There was that imbalance. The priests saw that, and they knew they had to begin educating girls."Today, New Guinea is a very different place, but not all of the changes have been positive.&nbsp;Prior to the establishment of the missions, men did not work, except to prepare for a sing-sing, a funeral or war. However, crime has become a problem on the island, and women are still second-class citizens."I think it's a glimpse into the past. I don't know that is critically important," Shaffer said, "but it gives those who might read the book an idea of what type of person Msgr. Firmin was and also opens up a past of these people that doesn't really exist anymore. ..."Shaffer's books are available at a discount through the <a href="https://haysartscouncil.org/">Hays Arts Council</a> for $18, with proceeds benefitting the council. The book can also be purchased online through Amazon.

Book of letters depicts missions, culture of early Papua New Guinea