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

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218 MALEKULA
WIFE of an important man ; theft, especially of pigs ; and, perhaps
most important of all, the death of an important man supposedly
as the result of malevolent magic. It seems that the immediate
and almost unwitting response on the part of his fellow villagers
to the death of a man of high social standing, is one of anger
["m'Ml6n vavarâ€ù = “they feel cross "), which expresses itself
spontaneously in the desire to go out and kill someone whom
they regard as an enemy, whether they believe him to be
responsible for the death or no. Sometimes this desire for
vengeance works in curious ways, as for instanoe, in the following
quarrel which was recalled by Amanrantus.
A certain great warrior, Vilamanggau of Leirip, village, had
a very great friend called Atawo ‘ who lived at Looremew some
miles distant. Although Vilamanggau was very much attached
to Atawo, he rather despised all the other people of Looremew.
One day he received news that Atawo was very ill. He at once
prepared to go over and see him, and sent a man ahead to make
sure that everything possible was done for his friend. It was,
however, in vain, and soon after news came that Atawo was
dead. On hearing this, Vilanlanggau was overcome with a
paroxysm of grief, and vowed that he would kill all the men of
Looremew " because they had let Atawo die ". _He then gathered
together all the men of Leirip, a large company, and set off with
them to Loorcmew. Here they took the inhabitants by surprise,
killed many of them forthwith, while the others ran hurriedly
for their bows, arrows, and clubs. The ï¬Åghting which ensued
lasted for several days, many people being killed and wounded
on both sides, and this gave rise to a pennanent state of hostility
between the two villages, in which several people lost their lives.
In addition to these "legitimate " causes of war, however,
an evil-minded man could make strife break out between two
clans or two districts by means of magic. The village of Mbwilm-
bar had as its totem the being called Temes mor vaal (" The ghost
of the great ï¬Åghter "), and owned the magic for “ making war ",
which magic was in the hands of the ofï¬Åcial magician of this
village. If this man were a misanthropist, or had a grudge
‘ Actually Vilamanggau and Atawo were distantly related, for Villmflnggau'8
mother and the paternfll grandmother of Atawo were cl.-in siswrs, both women
belonging to the village oi Nembilril. The intomumt implied, however, that iv;
was the friendship between these two men, not their rather distant kinship,
Evhich was tho cause ol vilainnnggau's grief and anger at the death or Amwa.-