[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine] l l ll Ii ll ll ll ii 4 330 MALEKULA killed and a {east held, after which law was begun again and continued throughout the night. In the moming a further pig was killed for the dancers’ breakfast. The candidates then went into the bush to cut posts of a special croton (naai limlm mwzil mbong) which they planted around the tame: to form a fence. This whole structure is the tartar. After the croton-fence had been built the candidates once more retired into the bush, and, at the request of their introducers, men who were skilled in the art painted the candidates. The design executed on each varied according to the status of the man who painted him. A procession was now formed. In the centre walked the candidates ; in front of and behind them was one of high rank who had done the painting. Two men bearing conches preceded and followed the ï¬Åle. In this order they came into the dancing ground, marched up to the gongs, and thence on to the tartar. Here they stopped, and the ï¬Årst of the two painters in the procession forced his way through the enclosing hedge of crotons and mounted a kind of step which had been placed in fl-out of the carved post. Some men now struck the gongs to announce that u pig of a certain value was about to be paid.‘ Then the rhythm was changed to mmms and the man standing before the tortov flung himself from the raised step and began the dance mmwus naai m'm¢w.' This he continued to do until Tota gave him a pig (nizavu) in payment for the hawk’s feather with which he was now invested, All the candidates then collected coco-nuts, yams, and other vegetables, and each one made some three or four heaps of these round the gangs.“ Each heap comprised a number of yams and coco-nuts, and on top of each'were placed some yams from which the ends had been cut off.‘ The temes was then carried from its position outside the amel and set up in the centre of the gongs. It was crowned with the skull of a man who in the past had I The rhythm Mn; malflmir is beaten 11 n. pig oi mulp status is about to be given; for an animal of lower value the rhythm nzmba! iva rmmy is used.»- A. B. r>. * From its position in the sequence of rites it seems possible that mn dance is equivalent to the " hawk dance ~ which one Jl'°3’.. seniors performs at entrance to other important Nimlmgki.—C. H. w. ' These heaps of yams and coco-nuts are called nilaw, e word which, is we have seen, means primarily "the fowl ".—A4 E. D. ¢ It is not clear who received these piles of food, but there is something to suggest that one went tn the man zwnl whom the hawk'B feather was bought and the other two to two personal friends of the candidlte.—C. H. w. vg‘ fly n 4 5 *5 ‘Q4 r 1 e ‘ ,. ‘». il ~ gl 1.) I‘ ._: .4 4 ,
