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

514 MALEKULA .
great thudding tramp and wheeling round the gongs began again.
Thus they continued for some time. As yet no word had passed
between these visitors and their hosts, but it appeared that one
man of a Lambumbu village was acting as the introducer of the
Seniang party, this duty being his because the nahal Iemes or
"ghost path " of Batnetamp in Seniang ran to his village in
Lambumbu. At what stage in the proceedings this introduction
was effected we do not know. As the Seniang men ceased their
dancing, conches were heard, blown in pairs, in the trees behind
the dancing ground, and shortly after three men appeared, each
carrying a conch in one hand. In the other hand was a sprouting
coco-nut, decorated with mbwingmbwingamb leaves at the end,
or else a long piece of wild cane with a leaf at the tip. At the
coming of these men the party from Seniang retired to one side.
The gongs struck up the rhythm Mai vihoien, and the three
new comers danced round them. They moved with their bodies
held taut and crouching, the right arm stretched out, the left
bent in with the clenched ï¬Åst held across the belly, the feet
stamping in incredibly swift succession. At one point in their
circling these men gave their coco-nuts or reeds to some other
man. We are not told who these three men were, nor who was‘
the person to whom they gave the reeds and coco-nuts. It seems
very probable that he was dancing round the gongs in the
opposite direction to the three donors, but of this we cannot be
sure since this part of the ceremonies was not witnessed by
Deacon himself. It was said that each coco-nut was handed over
in token of a pig which would be given by the three men at some
future date to the recipient of the coconut, and it is almost
certain that the presentation of the reeds had the same signiï¬Å-
cance} During this circling, one of the men Went in among
the women who were gathered at the village end of the dancing
ground awaiting their turn to join in the performance. When-
ever he came towards them they made little runs, with short,
quick steps and swaying petticoats, as though to surround him,
‘ If we compare this ceremony with the rites oi the Nimzmgki, whether in
Seniang or Lambumbu, we notice a close parallelism, and it seems very possible
that the man who received the reeds and coco-nuts may have been the “ buyer "
of the gangs, or of one of them, the three other men being the “ sellers ". If
this were so, then this performance would be functionally the same as that in
the Seniang Nimmtgki rites wherein the " seller " presents the " buyer " with
a reed or sprouting coco~nnt according to the value oi the pig which he is thus
symbolically promising to him.—C. H. W. ~