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

56
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for one or two hours and cohabit with her later in the night.
For a man to have intercourse thus twice in one night is common,
and once in a while he may do so as many as three times.
SEXUAL intercourse before puberty is strongly condemned by
parents as being weakening. Nevertheless, masturbation and
“ playing â€ù with the other sex are common among young boys.
HomoSEXUALity among boys, on the other hand, is apparently
very rare. One boy at Benaur tried to make another his boy-
lover, but the latter retorted : " D0 you think I'm a woman I "
and gave him a thrashing. l -
The repugnance common amongst men of most primitive
peoples for menstruation is found in this district. They express
great disgust at the sight of or proximity to menstrual blood.
Should a man and a woman go to a dance some days joum y
away and the woman s period come on during the return iourney
the man will leave her and go home by another route Further,
a menstruating woman is tabued from entering a garden in which
the plants are young and growing, nor may her husband do so
while she is in this condition
MEWUN
The Regulaium of M armzge
The regulation of marriage in Mewun is probably identical
with that in Seniang and Wilemp except in one respect Whereas
in these latter districts a man is allowed to marry his mother s
brother s widow, and it is even considered correct for him to do
so, in Mewun it is forbidden, though here, as in Seniang the usual
form of the ]unior levirate is approved As in the south the
local descent group or clan is an exogamous unit but we do not
deï¬Ånitely know whether the other prohibitions found in Seniaug,
such as the tabu on marrying a woman belonging to a clan from
I MALEKULA
would be dangerous to say it to them A man who wishes to
be strong for some particular event always refrains from SEXUAL
intercourse for ten days previously, and such an abstention is
also observed by those who are gomg to practise magic, but a
man does not abstain before going to war If a man has two
wives, and if after he has had intercourse with the ï¬Årst, the
nd also wants him he will tell her to wait and will sleep
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