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

226 MALEKULA
it."1 This presentation being over, those who have through
the medium of the sprouting coco-nuts promised the pigs, bring
the animals forward and hand them over to the group, from
whom at the beginning of the proceedings they received the
small pig. _
While all this is going on, the women oi both parties wait
in the background. The pig giving being over, they are signalled
to come forward. A great heap of yams is piled up,’ a feast is
prepared, and is then partaken oi by the men of both sides. In
thus eating together the hostility which divided them is buried
for ever. When the feast is over a naari tumat (" the cordyline
of peace "), which is the emblem of peace, is planted on the
former ï¬Åghting ground, with a broken bow beside it. A little
distance away is set up a mzlav lapas tree, the emblem of the
women’s secret society, the Lapas. This tree, like the Lupus
itself, is igah, or unhallowed (isleove), and is put there as a visible
curse that " unhallowed efleminacy“ shall fall upon the man
who dares to break the peace which has been thus sealed.
Many things are left obscure in this summary of the mzhalang
rites. We do not know to what party the men who beat the
gongs belong, nor who provides the food for the feast. Most
important of all we do not really know who gives and who receives
the pigs nor how the number of them is determined. Is the
presentation from the group which has lost fewest men to the
group which has lost most, and is the number and value of the
animals decided according to the difference in the losses on both
sides and the importance of the men killed ; or is each pig given
by one man to the brother or other near relative of the man
whom he has killed ? On the whole the phraseology of the notes
on this subject, and a comparison with the peace-making rites
of other islands in the New Hebrides, makes it probable that
the giving of the pigs is not an individual matter, but is done
on behalf of the two groups concemed. This is further borne out
by the fact that in olden days peace was often ratiï¬Åed by one
party handing over a woman as compensation to the other
1 It might be expected from these words that the donor of the an-ow would
be the kinsman of the man who had been killed, and that the making of this
giit indicated that he would not wreak vengeance for his relative's death, but
it is quite clear from the notes that the gift is made b the slayer.—C. H. W.
_“ We are not told who provides the yams for this ieast, though perhaps it
is implied that the women of the two bands of warriors contribute equally to
them.—C. H. W. -