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

306 MALEKULA
on the oonches continue for some little time. Presently the
crier comes into the middle of the dancing ground; the other
men gather round the gongs, and in the dark two men go up.to
the amel nitemzs one carrying a mbuas was pig, the other some
taro, yams, and other vegetable foodstuffs. The old man who
has been crying “lilamate " then addresses the temes with the
following words: "Arum, niiamall mzlis nitames iiuim tam‘ ,-
alamaur iii, alip nimbuas " 1 (" Grandfather, peaoe I I behold the
ghost's house; if ye live, take ye the pig "). Two small boys
now creep into the amel mltemes, drag inside it the pig and food
which are lying in front of the temes, and place them inside the
stone circle. This ends the litamats rite, and everyone begins
dancing again. They continue to do so until daylight, when
they are refreshed with a pig ior their breakfast.
When they have eaten they pass on to the next ceremony.
All the men present~thc introducer, his fellow members, the
candidate, and the visitors~go to a spot at some distance from
the gongs and gather in a. ring around the old man who cried
lilamale. They hold aloft fronds of coco~nut and in this way
form a kind of enclosure about him, through which the women
cannot see. This enclosure is called niseilu. The old man who
is thus screened from view is now painted and decorated on his
body and face with the designs which belong to Nimangki
Nevelvzl. On his head are placed a spider's web headdress,
and the leathers of {owls and of the nambal hawk. Wamrangk
rattles (see Plate XIlA), made of the dried fruits of the Pangium
eiiula, adom his ankles, and on his wrists are pig’s tusk bracelets
(tilevar). The spider's web head-dress is held ï¬Årm by a cord
plaited from some form of creeper known as mbirip. This cord,
called natal mubuwun, is not made in Seniang but by the women
of Lambumbu and Banggor districts, and it is only used in the
rites of Nivelvel or higher Nimangki grades. For this reason
when anyone is contemplating entrance into one of these ranks,
the men of South~West bay make an expedition to Lambumbu
to buy the necessary nael muluwun. For grades below Ne:/elwl
a fastening oi naai lislis or some other cord is used for tying
the nikambat to the head.
The painting and decorating ï¬Ånished, the old man begins to
' This is not in the language of $oniang, but what dialect it is in was not
discovered. The meaning oi the words taxi and is‘! is unknown,—A. B. D.
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