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

40 MALEKULA
" I reuï¬Åkh, nembauu, mmbw':lagh." “ Nianum ngei
" Good, I will go, I will haul (it) Lip.â€ù “ Those leaves
iei I " I mum mahan, itm/tin,
here they are ! â€ù He ï¬Ånishes completely, he buries (it),
itawin maham, ilam, imzmh, ivu,
he buries (it) completely, he ceases, he gets up, he goes,
aimwamwazzm ndzm. Nemzsevan
they sit down yet a little while. A space1(0ftime)
mbe-/ember mluu at imm iuweri : “ M ai, mmi
long yet a while, one of them says: " Hi, coco-nuts
tiinggét ievei P " â€ù Wal neveei ioghai P "
our where are they ? â€ù “ Why, what is that yonder? "
“ Nggém man Imghamsum.“ “Nnou.â€ù Iglnmsum mahan,
" One of you husk them." " I (wil1)." He husks entirely,
in 1111/elem,‘ ituu, ivwevi .' " Nggém tuan
he takes (it), it comes, he puts (it) down, he says: " One of you
bughur.â€ù “ Nnou, mzti in/21'? " " Saghni,
scrape (it).â€ù “I (will); where is the shell? â€ù " That’s it,
intsiomfsim raai, geser W/elem.â€ù “ I xi I "
it is sticking out above, take it it comes," " Here! "
Iser saghan. “ Geser no-out man bï¬Åvwelem, nï¬Åmbatugh
He gives (it) to him. “ Take a stone it comes, I’ll_ crack
mmi ' zi.â€ù ‘ " N e1/at ei.â€ù I ser, {tug}:
this coco-nut." " Here is the stone." He takes (it), he cracks
nam' ngei, iglmr.
that coco-nut, he scrapes (it).
At this point the translation unfortunately breaks off.
How the evening is ordinarily spent we are not told ; probably
the men continue to talk in the amel, and the women to visit each
other in their huts. As soon as the evening star (kah pitle in the
dialect of Seniang) has arisen, the old men send the small boys,
who are playing round them, to bed, saying: " Gulong, gumetur.
Gupitle " ‘ (" Go thou and sleep. Good-night â€ù), Later, when
it is time for the adults also to retire, most of the married men
go to their dwelling-houses, while others, who for some reason
wish or are constrained to keep apart from their wives, together
with all boys and bachelors, settle down to rest in the amal.
‘ Nemesn/W4, this word is used to indicate an interval of time and also an
interval in space; thus it is used for the spaces between the dwelling-houses
in a village.—A, B. D.
* Ei is quite distinct irom flgei; s. more literal translation of this sentence
would be : " I wil.l crack the coco_nut here," or " I will crack this here c0co~nut ".
-0. H. W. ' This is in the dialect of Seniang.