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

l 1

1 1
1
=
1+
7 ll! 1
538 MALEKULA V
belonged to the dead man, is brought up to the gangs. His
greatest friend then steps forward with a spear 1 and seizes hold
of the rope to which the pig is tied, as Hiough for the moment
he were about to kill it. At once, however, he turns to the crowd,
looking quickly among it, towards the man who is considered
the second~best friend of the deceased. This man then steps
out ; the ï¬Årst hands him the spear and rope, and moves back
away from the proceedings. In the same manner this second
man is relieved of the spear and pig by another, the third-best
friend of the dead man ; the third by a fourth, and so on, along
a long line of " diminishing friendship â€ù, each man emphasizing
his close bond with the deceased by refusing to kill the pig. As
the more distant friends are called upon, each successive one
comes forward in a more ofl-hand manner and takes the spear
and rope with a greater appearance of reluctance (sic), and the
ceremonial halts and pauses as men are waited for. At last there
appears a man who was not a friend of the deceased and who,
therefore, is going to accept the pig. He takes the spear and
rope and with the assistance of others in like position with
himself he kills the animal. Bananas and yams are then given
to him and later he takes both pork and vegetables home to
his village, where they are eaten. Should there be more pigs to
be disposed of in this way, the same procedure is gone through
for each one of them.
The meaning of this ceremony can only be interpreted in the
light of the Malekulan conception of friendship. Two men who
habitually eat together, sharing a common meal, come to feel
that they are united by a very intense bond, by something that
may be described almost as love. (Even between those who eat
together at such communal meals, as, for instance, that of a
Nimamgki grade, something of the same sentiment is present,
but it is less intense.) If two men are thus closely bound together,
and one of them dies, then the surviving friend is overwhelmed
with uncontrollable grief ; he is ï¬Ålled with a sense of the hope-
lessness and futility of all things. Nin rimrimien nin nirzmg
merevmien imbou Zen st‘ gm nimzc/irien w-ut imes (" The medita-
tion of the sorrow is great within him for his friend that is dead ").
Ninrimrimien nimwirisn imes at imbau Zen, inrimrim kw in an
1 According to Layard's informant (p. 209) a wooden pig-killer is used on
this occasion. ‘
/ l
J
Y
Y
1
I