[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
RITES OF BIRTH AND INITIATION 243 small conical plaited cap called noon! lamp (Layard, I928, pl. xix, ï¬Åg. 5), are all the materials used. The baby's head and forehead are ï¬Årst painted with the black preparation; the banana pulp is then fashioned to make a kind of close-ï¬Åtting cap, and is bound round tightly for a distance of some two inches with the bark rope. Over all this the plajted cap is ï¬Åxed to keep everything in placer Nothing has been recorded about the life of children. In Seniang the mother suckles her baby for ten months, and even after this she continues probably for a time to be the most important person on its horizon, since in both the south and north-west districts boys and girls continue to live and eat with her for several years. When he is seven or eight years old in Lambumbu, and probably at about the same age in Seniang, a boy is introduced to the Nimungki and eats away from his wornenfolk. In Seniang this occasion is also marked by the piercing of the boy’s ear-lobes. A turtle shell ring, which is cut across at one place and the severed ends of which are sharpened, is put on to the lobe. After two or three days the pressure of the sharpened edges against the flesh forces a hole, which is then enlarged by working the ring backwards and forwards. When the correct size has been attained—the lobe is not distended-—the wound is allowed to heal, a certain leaf being applied to promote the process. It is not clear whether it is the maternal uncle who afï¬Åxes this earring, but it seems that he receives the gift of a pig on this occasion from the 1ad’s father.‘ (b) INITIATION It seems probable that after his introduction to the N imangki, a boy is increasingly under his father's influence, although his true severance from his home does not take place until the incision rites some years later. The father is expected to teach the lad the practical arts of daily life and how to conduct himself as a member of society, telling him that he must not quarrel, must not steal, and must not interfere with women. It is said in Seniang that until a child has begun to think about women or ï¬Åghting he is imbamp and that his interests are * It is possible um the pig referred to here is not really given " for the ear» piercing but is only the animal given to the mother's brother “for the Nimmgkv ", since it is irorn this man that a boy purchases his membership of the ï¬Årst two grades,-—C. H4 W.
