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

VAC 101

or sticks in as many divisions as there are castes
each containing one fireplace. The highest castes
sit at the front end of the gamal, the lower at the
back; these are forbidden to enter the gamal from
the front, in order not to touch or step over the fire-
places of their superiors. At each rise in caste the
novice receives the new fire, rubbed on a special
stick and decorated with flowers; certain ceremonies
attend the cooking of the first food with this new fire.
It is then carefully tended in the fireplace, and if it
goes out it has to be rubbed afresh with the stick.
The number of pigs necessary to a rise in caste also
varies on the different islands. Generally, only tusked
pigs are counted, and there are feasts at which as
many as forty of these valuable animals are killed.
Naturally, the high-castes cannot keep all the animals
themselves, but they lend them, like money, to those
who do not possess the number needed to rise in
caste; in this way a complicated credit-system has
developed, by which the so-called chiefs support and
strengthen their influence and tyrannize the country.
A young man, as a rule, owns no tusked pigs.
'If he wishes to raise his caste, he has to borrow
from the rich high-castes, who are very willing to
help him, but only at exorbitant rates of interest.
First he has to win their favour by presents, and
then he has to promise to return a more valuable
pig later. The bargain made, the transaction takes
place publicly with some ceremony. The population
of the district assembles, and all the transactions are
ratified which have been negotiated in private. The