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

RITES OF BIRTH AND INITIATION 241
When the infant is two months old, yet another transaction
takes place between the father and his wife's brother. The latter
cuts a length of bamboo as for a water vessel, and on it marks with
his knife a single row of triangles, forming a kind of dog-tooth
pattern. The surface of altemate triangles is entirely removed,
and they are ï¬Ålled in with a red pigment which is rubbed all over
the bamboo. The vessel is then ï¬Ålled with water, and certain
leaves are squeezed into it. When he has ï¬Ånished these prepara~
tions the child’s maternal uncle pays a visit to the father, taking
the bamboo with him. This he gives to the father, who in return
presents his brother-in-law with a pig. The inner signiï¬Åcance of
this gift and counter-gift could not be explained, but there is a
very deï¬Ånite fear on the part of the father that should he fail
to make it, the child's maternal uncle or maternal grandfather
may work maleï¬Åcent magic or offer up prayers (mbusmbus)
to its maternal forbears and so cause the infant to die, The
exchange is termed ivi nemonggzm mim mm wambiin, which
means “ he makes his nensonggon go to his mother’s brother ".
What the signiï¬Åcance of this may be no one seems to know.
Nmsonggom is a word used generally for all household property,‘
but whether the property referred to is supposed to be that of
the child or the father, and in what way it is transferred to the
mother’s brother, in fact what really is referred to, Deacon was
entirely unable to discover.
“ It seems to be just a formula handed down, used to describe
this payment made to the maternal uncle, no one remembering
why it is made. In view of the fact, however, that inheritance
is strictly and absolutely patrilineal, the whole thing is rather
interesting. A possible explanation is this: here, as in many
other places, there is considerable freedom of access to and use
of one another's belongings by the mother's brother and sister’s
son. This obviously clashes with the sharing and inheritance of
property beween the boy and his father. So the payment of ivi
mnszmggon mim ran wambiin may be, so to speak, a survival of
the house of his sister and her husband, and, where marriage is matrilocal,
while she would be in her home-village, he would be with his wife's people. This
payment for “ opening the eye â€ù of the iniant is, however, yet another instance
of the stress which the patrilineel Malekulans in general and perhaps the people
oi Lambnmbu in particular lay on the fact that a person has close bonds with
his or her mother's family as well as with the-i'ather’s.—-C. H. W,
A g3" gansonggnfl is apparently equivalent to the Lagalag word mmgg1mgk."_
From this statement it may be deduced that this exchange is recorded from
Lfléllbll-llflibll. There is nothing to indicate whether it also takes place in Lagalag.
— . . W. ~
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