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

418 MALEKULA
Numbau Vivinsiengk Loofha
Entrance to this grade is very similar to entrance to Nivifat
which precedes and Numbou Timbamp which follows it. Unlike
N1'vi/at, it is not one of the grades which is associated with the
gongs, Nalau/an Nimbwilei, and it differs from Nu/mbou Timbamp
in that no carved stone is set up. The characteristic structure
is a pole carved with a number of faces, similar to the pole numbou
timbarap of the grade oi that name. Nivinsimgk is the name
of a certain kind of bread-fruit, and it seems probable, though it
is not deï¬Ånitely stated, that this pole, the mbou vivinsiengk
lo0r’ha, is made of this tree. It is set up just outside the amel,
leaning against the wall, to the right-hand side of the entrance.
Enclosing it is a circle of small upright stones (mmggob). During
the ceremony of receiving the pig's tusk bracelet and turtle—shell
armlet the candidate places his wrist against this pole. There
is no record of the new name which the candidate receives, nor
of the kind of mask associated with this grade.
N umbou Timbamp '
According to the informant, the man who was entering this
grade and the one preceding it would have already acquired
the title Matelau, which belongs to members of Nimangki
Neliwis.
The rites of entrance to Numlwu Timbarap are somewhat
more elaborate than those hitherto described, as are also the
ceremonial objects associated with them, and it is noteworthy
that this is the ï¬Årst Nalawan for which a monolith is set up.
When arrangements have been made for some man to act as
introducer, the candidate appoints a day when he and his friends
will cut a tree-fern for making the numbou timbarap, and for
hewing the stone new/at nambar. These are brought in and kept
in the amel where, with the assistance of his introducer, the
candidate carves and paints them, and payments of ï¬Åve nitavu
pigs in all are made to the former in return for the objects and
their preparation ; the ï¬Årst for the 11/umbzru timbamja as a whole ;
the second for the faces carved upon it {this payment being
called, as it is in the Nimangki rites, ikikina) ; the third for the
paring or smoothing of these faces (this being termed semi
t

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