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THE NIMANGKI SOCIETY 32 5
introducer, the candidates go a little way along the path which
leads to their village and close beside it (probably in the matanhal)
each one sets up, as he does at entrance to M bat Ru, tunes of all
the N imzmgki grades which he has entered hitherto. This
gathering of tames is called mun‘ nzrev. Furthermore, every
candidate plants in this place a pole of nimumwmgk wood, which
probably serves the same function as the nawm mbatia used in
M bat Ru, Neliwis, and other grades‘ Each candidate then goes
to his introduoer and asks him what value of animal he intends
to give as the “ presentation pig ". The introducer tells him,
and thereupon the candidate ï¬Åxes to the top of his nimmnwmgk
a sprouting coco-nut, the length of whose shoot indicates the
degree of tusk curvature of the promised animal.
When this structure is ï¬Ånished the introducers come to the
candidates’ village to help them make the wimew, which is in
eflect a large cone made of bamboo. Leaves oi the thatching
palm (namiet) are taken, the side-leaves stripped from them,
and the bark removed irom the mid-ribs (naualiet), which are
then carried into the amel. Long strands of a species of cane
(mvfllnmm) are also gathered and cleaned of their spines. A
length of bamboo is now split in such a way that the strips are
free at one end and joined together at the other by the node,
thus forming a. rough, conical framework, To the outside of
these strips are fastened the palm mid-ribs, and at intervals
along the length of the cone are a number of spiral lashings of
the cane nevil!eman~4ach lashing consisting of three revolutions
—far enough apart. apparently to allow of a man lying in a
contracted position inside the cone in the compartment marked
oft between every two (see Fig. 17). The number oi these lashings
(naandel). and therefore of the oompartmcnts, is determined by
the number of candidates, each one giving a. pig for one of them.
A number of other lengths of bamboo are split and used to ï¬Åll
in the walls of the cone, and outside these again are fastened
the palm-leaf mid-ribs (navnliet), Pieces of mangrove wood
(netong) are fastened over the cane lashings where they intersect
with the ribs of the cone. On each of these pieces of wood two
faces are modelled and painted by means of a paste made of
mwa mid-rib pith 1 and grated nemlzrill, which is smeared on and
1 It seems um this pith or the paste made mm it is cllled flimuwizn, the
word used for the sloughed slain at a snalre_ Whether this is a secret m public
name m the pith is not statedr—C. H, wt