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

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rm: NIMANGKI SOCIETY 197
unlike that of chewing gum, shake it, paint it red, and fasten it
to the temes. This carved and decorated pole is now planted
close to the nwunui, and with it in the same hole are put a spray
of the red cordyline mzari mama! and two sprays of nani nu/.
Four bamboos of the variety called nambm or lemes are planted
around those and a kind of numbul is erected with mm’ nw leaves
fastened to the string thereof.
On the morning of the festivities visitors arrive from the
neighbouring hamlets and some fonn up into a procession at
the spot just outside the village called the mahmhal, while others
beat rendir naai mbimbamp on the gangs. Those who constitute
the procession are not only men who have themselves entered
Naai M bimbarap ; any man who is a member of any N imangki
grade, except the candidate himself, may join in it. All carry
bows and arrows, saving the two men at the head and tail of the
ï¬Åle who have conches (pupa) on which they blow. In the centre
walks one who has been blackened from head to foot, this being
the body decoration for members of this degree.‘ In this order
they march up to the gongs. The candidate then takes a conch,
and he and the man painted black execute a pas-de-deux,
"circling" round the gangs, while the procession breaks up.
The candidate then comes forward and pays to thc blackened
man one pig for the new hawk’s feather with which he is now
invested. After this he retires to the matanhal and there is
decorated. He is painted black all over ; a spray of mbm'ng-
nibwihgilmb leaves is stuck into his belt at the back, and a ï¬Ållet of
-:'n1¢'1.“_t' h'sl1's encircles his forehead. The gongs are then beaten
;lwu'thubhe)i1hybhm‘mizlndelmas, and with his pig-killing hammer
shfoulder and a conch in one hand, he dances. When
héi1;gi'is_»‘iï¬Ågnishedfhis performance what we may term the " dance
o'fut1ie:~Qr‘iosifl takes place: first the candidate and two of his
iniendsérone of whom carries the pig-1¢11er, the other the ¢°n¢h_
55 circle â€ù round zthe gongs; then the introducor and two of his
niates do the same; lastly the man painted black and two of
his-friends follow suit, all to the same rhythm. It is important
to‘ notice‘ that on this occasion ndelndelmas is beaten not to
announce that a pig is going to be killed, which is its usual
signiï¬Åcance, but because it is the rhythm used to indicate this
grade, which, like the others of this group, has no true rhythm
1 This man is probably the intr01luoer's chief mate.—C. H. w,