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

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CHAPTER XII ‘
THE NIMANGKI AND NELEMEW OF NORTH AND
EAST MALEKULA
Turning to the districts north of Seniang we ï¬Ånd that until
recently the people of Mewun had nothing which truly
corresponded to the Nimangki. It is said that among them there
were only two ï¬Åres, one for the men and one for the’ women.
Nevertheless it appears that a man could acquire prestige by
erecting a club-house and that the privilege of doing this could
only be purchased from a man who had himself already
constructed one. The transaction involved, apparently, the
payment of pigs and the performance of a dance called m'te1/-1
hut naai or tauga, which probably corresponded to the tam of
Seniang. N0 images were set up equivalent to the Seniang tamer.
Within living memory, however, the people of Mewun have
borrowed the Nimangki organization from their southern
neighbours in a somewhat simpliï¬Åed form, but beyond this fact
we know nothing of it, neither of the grade names, nor of the
entrance ceremonies, nor oi the ritual objects associated with
them.
Inland,‘ among the people of Laus, the N imangki is not known
and, though the evidence is negative, this is also true probably
of other bush-folk such as the Naan Bugoi and the people of
Learop, Uerik, and Bangnsa. So intimate is the association of
the amel, the men’s club-house, with the Nimangki in South-
West Bay, that when the men of Laus visit the latter district,
they are not allowed to enter the amal, but are given a dwelling
in that part of the village which is igah, among the other huts,
and are regarded as " all same woman ".
In the districts of Lambumbu, Laravat, and presumably
Lagalag, however, the Nimang/vi was once a flourishing and vital
institution (though rather diftcrent in its organization from the
society of this name in Seniang), and its presence throughout
the whole of the north, north-west, and north-east of Malekula
is almost certain. But Deacon did not stay in Lambumbu and
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