[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 17
plumage, which is used for personal adornment. The pig on the
other hand is treasured for his tusks. Sows are important only
for their litters, and though women may eat their flesh, no adult
man would ever do so. It is the boar that matters, and his
worth is estimated not so much by his size as by the curvature of
his tusks. All important social occasions are marked by the
presentation or killing of one or more boars, and a man’s social
status depends primarily upon the number and value (as reckoned
by the natives) of those which he owns. The dominant interest
in a MaJekulan's liie is therefore to have abundance of vegetable
food, and by judicious lending and borrowing to increase the
number and value of his pigs.
Tun MALEKULAN CHARACTER
This interest in pigs would seem to be the keynote of the
Malekulan character. Indeed, as Deacon wrote :-
" the Malekulan is typically bourgeois and commercially minded.
He is preoccupied generally with the making of deals, with
bargaining and exercising his sharp wits to getting the better of
his economic rivals. Wealth, or rather the ability to display and
expend wealth, is the hall-mark of rank, and a ma.u’s chief interest
is to acquire wealth and yet more wealth.â€ù
Something of the other aspects of the character of the natives
is,revealed in the following passage :—
' " His attitude towards lite is a curious mixture. On the one
‘hand he renders servile homage to convention and outward
ceremony and is fearful oi violating tahus, while at the same time
he will exploit these on all occasions when by doing so he may
hope to reap material beneï¬Åts. On the other hand he seems to
regard life in an ironic, .materia.listic spirit, as something in the
nature of a joke, though sometimes a bad one. The boys and
young men are much given to ragging among themselves, some-
times in a rather obscene manner, the penis being a favourite
object of attack; they loll about on each other with mock
"embraces, and give way to infectious laughter, often uttering
‘ piercing‘ whoops and yells for no apparent reason ; they swagger
about, displaying themselves before the women and before each
other, and their minds are largely occupied in making themselves
‘flash ’ and trying to seduce girls. After marriage a change is
noticeable. The men behave more soberly, become more secretive
and prudent in their conduct, apply themselves more seriously to
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