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[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
RITES OF BIRTH AND INITIATION 255 that it may look as though he had huge testicles, and thus dis» ï¬Ågured he will dance before the boys, who are made to touch him. The horror of these experiences for the boys lies not only in their strangeness but in the belief that all these ï¬Ågures which they see and are made to touch are really ghosts (temuh). At the end of each exhibit, however, the secret of the deception is revealed to them ; they are taught exactly how the “ hoax " was carried out, and in this way the mystery is dispelled, and they learn how to perform it themselves against the time when, as grown men, they will have to play their part in the incision ceremonies of other young boys. ' At some time during the seclusion, generally on the tenth day, a rather curious ceremony is performed, the signiï¬Åcance of which is not clear. The paternal aunt of each candidate goes up near the seclusion house and cries out: "Nzmgg0—1zongga— nunggu—-/nonggo I X»-—, come out here, the rats are making a mess on your bed, come, clean it up neatly ! â€ù (“ Xi, gem/elem veri, nelambut itamtum len nenrang tvmggu, gevwelem, buwurumr bagha ! "). In reply to this all the men in the house yell out together, making a terrible noise so that the boys cannot be heard. The paternal aunt then cries out again : " He .’—He ./— He !-—-He !~He I," to which the men reply once more by yelling, after which the woman departs. For this service the father oi the candidate pays his sister a pig} When the twentieth day after incision has come, the last day of the sechmion, the men go out to some open place in the bush near the amel naavavien, and set up an avenue of crossed reeds. The leaves in which the candidates’ food has been cooked during the whole period of seclusion are collected, thrust into a coco-nut~leaf basket and hung up on a tree overlooking this avenue. The boys now have their faces painted red and, carrying their bows and arrows and accompanied by their guardians, they leave their house and walk up to the avenue. Here they ï¬Ånd that men have lined up along either side of it, armed with sticks, and both the boys and guardians are made to run the gauntlet the length of the avenue, but only the guardians are beaten; the boys are left untouched. When this is over the - 1 "Compare this with the fact cm: the father does not go to the incision house, though the mothers brother may and does do so; and also with the ï¬Åght between the mother's brother and the father over incision at South-West Bay."—A. B. D.
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