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

162 MALEKULA
able to pay it all himself, without help from his relatives. Gener-
ally, however, when the bride is a girl who has not been married
previously, the " price â€ù is high and the suitor is assisted in
paying it by every adult man in his village giving him a pig.
The rinci le is that at least one pig of every category should be‘
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given, from naamgh dovm to m:mln'lil.1 This giving of pigs to
the young man is said to be the sarne thing as a " collection "
in the mission school. The pigs are not “ lent " for any speciï¬Åc
period, but it is expected that they will be repaid in the course
of time, either on the occasion of other men's marriages, or by
the borrower holding a small nelemew, mghlughian, or other feast.
To give a pig to a suitor to help him in paying for his bride is
termed (re) melmelag; to return such a pig at a future date is
(re) 1/uvwa. .
On the day ï¬Åxed for the marriage, the bridegroom remains
athome, but all the other men of his village, including the man
who had acted as emissary, take the bridegroom's pigs and those
which have been given to him for the occasion, and set oft for
the girl’s village. The bride’s father has previously instructed
the boys and girls of her village to go out along the road leading
to that of the bridegroom, and to set up at intervals along it
small model houses made of wild canes and other materials.
As the bridegroom’s party comes along they put tobacco, cart-
ridges, and calico (formerly bone arrows, mats, etc.), upon each of
these houses. Meanwhile the bride has been made " flash â€ù with
coco-nut oil and has had her face painted red. She remains
inside her iather’s house until the bridegroom’s party has arrived,
and then she is led out by the emissary. Now, for the ï¬Årst time,
it is said, the mat head-dress, the mark of an adult woman, is
placed on her head.
While this has been going on, the bride's father has seen
that two baskets are prepared in his village, one ï¬Ålled with yams,
the other containing a small pudding. On the top of the latter
a small stick, called mmsul mat, is placed. The emissary then
hands over to the bride’s father the pigs which have been brought
in payment, and informs him, if he does not already know, how
many have been provided by the bridegroom himself and how
many have been contributed by the men of his village. These
pigs are distributed later by the bride's father; he gives some
1 For a list of the pig grades see Chap, VII. '
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