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

‘I
RITES OF BIRTH AND INITIATION 267
female relatives of each novice 1 come to the ghamal bagho and
proceed to throw stones at it, beat it with sticks, cast oranges
and coco-nuts at it, all the time crying out the names of the
boys and asking whether they are dead or still alive. The boys
hearing their calling shout back saying that they are not dead
but living. On the evening of this same day a big dance called
nititer takes place on the village dancing ground. This dance
is said to be held on account of the general joy that the boys
are coming out of seclusion. Some of the men beat the gongs,
while in the centre of the ground the others dance together in a
group, the women circling round them, still calling the boys’
names in high—pitched voices.
The next day a great feast is celebrated. The novices are
led forth from the ghamal bagho, their fathers pay the guardians,-
and each lad now purchases his newly-won penis-sheath from
his maternal uncle. It is important to notice that the boy
himself, not his father, makes payment for this. He does not
acquire the bark-belt on this occasion, but at some later date
(the length of the interval was not stated and probably varies)
the erstwhile novice pays his dubut a few c0co—nuts or some
tobacco for it. Until this payment is made the dubut continues
to have homosexual relations with the lad, but when once the
latter has assumed his bark-belt this bond is severed and he,
being now a “ man â€ù, can take a boy-lover for himself.“
An interesting problem connected with these initiation rites
is their relation to one another and to the ceremonial of the
secret societies. Unfortunately our knowledge of the culture
of many parts of Malekula and of the neighbouring islands is
so scanty—in many instances almost negligible—that it is not
possible to reach any satisfactory conclusions on this matter.
It is clear that, despite the difference in the actual operation,
the ceremonies of the Big Nambas, Laravat, Lamburnbu, and
probably Lagalag are fundamentally the same, characterized
by a thirty days’ seclusion, the use of ordeals for the novices,
and the swinging of bullroarers. In this last rmpect, too, the
rites of Uerik resemble them, although those of Niviar lack it.
1 Probably, by analogy with the rites at Laravat, it is only the female relatives
on the father’s side who perform this ceremony.-——A. B. D.
2 It is very unfortunate that in all his accounts of these ceremonies Deacon
h ' of l1 ‘ d h '
never mentions t e approximate age t e novices, nor oes e give any
indications of how old a boy is when he first is taken as a. lover.--C. H. W.
F%._