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[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
7 He. .. ' I" _ THE NIMANGKI SOCIETY 335 are probably the same as those at entrance to Neveluel. First the introducer and candidate set up the stone circle (nonggnb) and plant the malamir bush inside it ; then there follows, we may presume (though no mention is made of it), the rite of “ opening the door â€ù 1; after this the upright post is cut and perhaps carved, and, an interval of a iew days having elapsed, is set up beside the malandr bush inside the mmggob. Over all the amel ewon is built. Aisumjmdew is then sounded and during the following day and night the rites of entrance are performed in their usual manner and sequence. On the morning of the second day the candidate receives his new title oi Mbalias. Among the objects for which pigs are paid during the ceremonies there are the pig's tusk bracelet, the turtle-shell armlet (namba), and the hawk's feather, and the mlmbinlzen, that is, the upright post. The candidate also gives pigs for those sacred objects the ï¬Ållet netel mulmmm and the handolier mban m21ve;I2 which corne from Lambumbu. The latter is worn passing round the back of the neck, across the chest, and fastening at the hack again; the former is tied round the head as at entrance to N evelvel. It seems too that on entering N aamel Ewan the candidate purchases and wears for the ï¬Årst time the spider's web head-dress, which is the badge for all grades above Nevelvel.’ N amu Namu is the highest grade of which we know anything, and according to one informant it is the highest of all Nimangki ranks. Although no one has become a member of it for many years, this same informant once witnessed the entrance rites, and was able to give some account of them. _ 1 ct, Layard, 1928, P. 170. I Layard states that although nothing was said of it in the account which was given to him, he understood that a monolith is erected at entrance to Nuamel Ewan, and he gives a photograph oi such a stone. It is curious too that Deacon makes no mention oi any monolith connected with these rites, and there is reason to imagine, thereiore, that in {act none such was set up and that Layard was mistaken, Since, as Deacon points out, several men may be entering diï¬Åerent Nimimgki grades at the same time it is not impossible that this stone which Layard photographed really belonged to the rites of a different grade. It will be remembered that a small stone is erected at entrance to the much lower grade Naamel and it is just possible that Layard was confused between the two grades Nruwwl and Naamzl Eu/on, particularly since he does not record the former at all. Again Layard tells of a tame: nuamel I:/on which is set up for this degee in a village other than that of the candidate. There is nothing in any of eacon’s notes which conï¬Årms this and it is possible therelote that in this, too, Layard was mistaken. (Le-yard, p. 170, and plate xv, ï¬Åg, 3.)—C, H. W.
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