Agaiambo is a swamp in Oro Province

Oro Province

Oro Province, formerly Northern Province, is a coastal province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Popondetta. The province covers 22,800 km², and has 133,065 inhabitants ....

, Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

. The swamp was previously noted for a Pygmy

Pygmy

Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...

 race of inhabitants also called Agaiambo.

During the Second World War a US Air Force Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress crashed into the area. In 1972 the plane was rediscovered nicknamed The Swamp Ghost.

Inhabitants

The Agaiambo or Agaumbu were a race of dwarf marsh-dwellers discovered in British New Guinea or Papua, but assumed now extinct. In his annual report for 1904 the acting administrator of British New Guinea stated that on a visit he paid to their district he saw six males and four females. The Agaiambo lived in huts erected on piles in the lakes and marshes. Dwarfish in stature but broadly built, they were remarkable for the shortness of their legs. They lived almost entirely in their dug-out canoes or wading in the water.

Their food consisted of sago

Sago

Sago is a starch extracted in the spongy center or pith, of various tropical palm stems, Metroxylon sagu. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Moluccas, where it is called saksak and sagu. A type of flour, called sago flour, is made from sago. The largest supply...

, the roots of the water-lily and fish. The Agaiambo are believed to have been formerly numerous, but had suffered from the raids of their cannibalistic Papuan neighbours. In features, colour and hair they closely resembled true Melanesia

Melanesia

Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...

ns.