[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
t
44 MALEKULA
taambal} a ball-throwing game known as tasongop, a variety of
football, and a, game named nivenaiien in which the players
compete in shooting at a tree. The last two are played between
two teams of ten men each, and it appears that there are
other sports in which similar teams engage. The players do
not, however, really act as a team; they are not usually
organized so that they co-operate, but rather 'each plays as an
individual competitor. Other games, such as kite-flying, top
spinning (a cycas pod being used for a top, see Fig. 5), the making
of " cats‘ cradles " and the drawing of geometric ï¬Ågures in the
sand are also popular.’ How far fliese games are played by
grown men as well as by children, or, on the other hand, whether
they are indeed children's games at all is not recorded, nor do
we know whether boys and girls commonly play together or
observe the sex dichotomy which is so marked in the lives of
their elders. ~
Warfare
In a survey of Malekulan life as it was a decade or two ago,
we should have to include among those activities which brdke
the routine of daily life, the art of war. To-day, thanks largely
to the rapid depopulation of the coastal districts, and partly to
the more direct efforts of the white man to suppress it, warfare
is relatively uncommon, and is conï¬Åned for the most part to the
peoples of the interior and to the Big Nambas. In olden days,
however, it was a not unimportant activity carried on either
between one district and another or between villages of the
same district. The events which generally brought it about,
the ways in which it was prosecuted, and the rites which terminated
it will be described later.
Religion -
Reference has already been made to the numerous ceremonies
which, either at ï¬Åxed intervals or intermittently claimed the
labour and interest of the Malekulans. These will be described
1 This and the following names are almost certainly in the dialect of Seniang.
* It is hoped that accounts of these geometrical ï¬Ågures and of the " cats’
cradles " will be shortly issued in a separate publication. g