The very name of this Pacific island conjures up strange, exotic images - because this is truly an isolated paradise peopled by tribes still living as their ancestors did in what we call The Stone Age, first settled by hunters and gatherers 50,000 years ago.

Although the climate is tropical, there is great variety in the land, from humid swamps to tropical moss forests to chilly highlands.

Today, much of the country is made up of small, insular villages, each with their own cultures and practices, even their own languages - of which there are more than 800 in this little nation. In these hamlets scattered tribes, most of them under the mystic spell of sorcery, live their entire lives untouched by outside influences.

Until the fairly recent arrival of Europeans, the peoples of the south coast were notorious for headhunting and cannibalism, but these practices have now disappeared.