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

THE VILLAGE AND VILLAGE LIFE 35
no walls, except at the front and back. Another sketch (Fig. 4)
is of a rectangular building with side walls but open at either end.
Whether both these drawings are of houses in Lambumbu or
Lagalag is not clear, but that they belong to the north-west
part of Malekula seems certain.
VILLAGE LIFE
' It may be said with truth that the Malekulan is essentially
a villager and an agriculturist, though at the same time he has
a wider " county â€ù or “ district " life which corresponds roughly
to our "national " liie. This is fostered from time to time by
the feasts connected with death and marriage, and with the
rites of one of the secret societies, to which the men of one village
will invite their neighbours. It seems, too, that formerly a good
deal of visiting took place in a small way between the men
and, except in times of war, a guest was always welcomed,
taken into the club-house and worthily entertained. Neverthe-
less, in his daily life the social horizon of a man is largely restricted
to the village and village group to which he belongs, and this is
even more true of the life of a woman.
3;,‘ Daily Occupations
_:.>l-,~l]1'lf0Tl.“l11'13t€ly Deacon left no written record of the way in
:which;the,=Malekulans live from day to day. We know almost
,n§ithing;‘_o1'_'their social mores, their etiquette and their behaviour
‘ifliiihg ;face,'o,f_ the small incidents of daily life. The day and
~i1ighto%i'f$’5.lBipparently,jdivided-roughly into fourteen periods of
h2_!l,ti,i_(i_li,-::!l&Zeili'a=ve.lthe narnes, though unfortunately these are for the
;n1p§_e part: untranslated. The divisions are :— .
1>_,;;=(1).,Leuahat nmgreng, (2) Levahat, (3) Livalies, (4) Nalijiit,
.-_(5)';vIn'12,. (6) -New/at imbaambfl (or imbï¬Åmba), (7) Kevi Zarap,
1(8) Lamp, (9) Nal mien, (10) Mis mbung, (II) Liuaat, (I2) Livaat
mbwimbaranggen, (13) New/at imeel, (14) New/ut_ ireng} Of these
terms, nal 1'¢it signiï¬Åes “ noon ", when the shadows are at their
shortest ; irip means "it inclines " and probably signifies that
_period.when the sun has begun its downward course ; lamp is
‘ These are the nan-res for the periods of the day iii the dialect of Seniang.
Almost certainly a similar CllV|SlOfl is made by the people of other districts,
at lgsstvan the south and north-west coasts, but these have not been recorded.-