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RITES OF BIRTH AND INITIATION 261
henceforth, of a very special nature, to understand which it is
necessary to know something of the organization of male homo-
sexuality in this district.
Among the Big Nambas, as in North Raga, homosexual
practices between men are very highly developed. Every chief
has a number of boy-lovers, and it is said that some men are so
completely homosexual in their affections, that they seldom
have intercourse with their wives, preferring to go with their
boys.‘ Up.to the time that a boy assumes the bark—belt, the
badge of the adult male, he should not take a boy»lover, but
himself plays this role to some older man. It is only after he
has donned the bark-belt that he enjoys this privilege. It is
clear, then, that for some time before a boy is circumcised he
belongs to one of the older men. A boy-lover, like a circumcision
candidate, is termed mngh val, and he refers to his " husband "
as nilagh sen. Nilagh sen is really the term employed by a man
for his sister's husband, but in this context it is used in jest, for
the rules regulating the behaviour of relations by marriage make
it impossible for a man to have homosexual connection with his
wife's brother. The association between a nilagh sen and his
mugh vel is a very close one; indeed, the former has complete
sexual rights over his boy. Thus, if the mugh val were to have
sexual intercourse with any other man, without the consent of
his nilagh sen, the latter would be very angry. Further, the
nilagh sen can "sell " his rights over the boy to another man.
When this is done it is customary for the second man to copulate
with the boy and immediately after having done so to give hirn
some calico, fowl‘s feathers, or other ornament. This the boy
then hands over to his nilagh sen. Boys are "sold " in this
way only for short periods of time ; after a few days they always
return to their real " husbands ", who have use of them as before.
The bond between mugh val and nilagh sen is, however, not only
a sexual one. The boy accompanies his " husband â€ù everywhere ;
works in his garden (it is for this reason that a chief has many
boy-lovers), and if one orother of the two should die, the survivor
will mourn him deeply.
In the choice of his mugh vel a manis restricted by certain
rules. He need not necessarily select a boy from another clan
1 The act of coition, when iutercourse is homosexual, is carried out standing
up, not lying down as is usual when cohabiting with a. woman.—A. B. D.