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

AMBRYM 205

there are other secret societies whose importance,
however, is decreasing, as they are being more or
less absorbed by the Suque. As each of these clubs
has its own house, we sometimes find quite- a number
of such huts in one village, where they take the place
of gamals. Each Suque high caste has his own
house, which the low castes may not enter. The
caste of the proprietor may be seen by the material
of which the hedge is made, the lower castes having
hedges of wood and logs, the highest, walls of stone
and coral slabs. Inside the courtyard, each man
lives alone, served only by his Wives, who are allowed
to cook his food. The separation of the sexes is not
so severe on Ambrym as on Santo. On the whole,
it would seem that in the past Ambrym had a
position apart, and that only lately several forms of
cult have been imported from Malekula and mingled
with genuinely local rites. Even to-day, it is not
rare for a man from Ambrym to settle for a while on
Malekula, so as to be initiated into some rites which
he then imports to Ambrym; and the Ambrymese
pay poets large fees to teach them poems which are
to be sung at certain feasts, accompanied by dances.
Unhappily, I never had occasion to attend one of
these “ sing-songs.”

The originality of Ambrym has been preserved
in its sculpture only. The material used is tree-fern
wood, which is used nowhere else but in the Banks
Islands. The type of human being represented
differs from that on the other islands, especially as
regards the more moon-shaped form of the head,