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

432 MALEKULA
Seniang names for them. Of the rites connected with entrance
to these grades, nothing has been recorded.‘
The tomes mzainggol are unlmown in Mewun, but the sound of
the bull—roarer, called here mmgongokh miel, is the secret sound which
belongs to N alawan Ambar. This name is also given to a disguise
of leaves worn by members of this grade in which they used to
go about carrying orange branches and beating any women and‘
children whom they came across.
The performance of a Nalai/1/an ceremony is connected in
this district with the disposal of the dead. When a man has
died his skull is kept until the next Nalau/an is celebrated, and
then it is carried to the charnel house in the sacred place of the
clan of which he was a member.
Whether this society exists in the north-west districts of
Lambumbn, Lagalag, and Laravat is not certain, but it seems
probable that the Nimangki Tlel of Lamburnbu and the Nzlan
of Lagalag, are indeed modiï¬Åed forms of the Nalau/an of the
south. Since they both present some unusual and interesting
features, however, they will be considered in a separate chapter.
To the north among the Big Nambas and the Small N ambas
there is a society known among the former as Nalauen, among
the latter as Nilan. Very little has been discovered about it,
but certain masks called lam/u and bull-roarers called romu or
lunar, which are kept in the men's club-house (nagumcl), belong
to it. Both these objects are highly sacred and tabu to women.
The masks are constructed out of their sight and, were a woman
to look while they were being made or while the mask dance
navel was being practised, shewould die.’ Nor may she ever set
eyes on a bull-roarer. The right to wear a mask can only be
purchased by means of pigs from members of the Nimangki grade
Milimi. For the right to swing a bull-roarer also a pig must be
paid, but it is not stated to whom.
The celebrating of a Nalaum is associated with the removal
of a chief's skull to its ï¬Ånal abode in the sacred place (ut lain) of
his clan. The members of the association don their masks and
1 A cryptic note states that the rites of Nalmunn Amber SIG celebrated
annually, but there is nothing tn mu U! whother referencc is here being made
to the original Mewun grade Nalml/an Am-bar (Ncldlllflfl rm Tildh) or to the
grade of that name which appears BS the rim he the second series. Whichever
ls meant, the statement suggests that it held B rather special place in the ritual
lite oi Mewun.—C. r-I. W.
I n is not clear whether this would be the nut/omatic result ni her peeping,
or whether she wmrld be put tn death by the men.-C. 1-I. w.
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