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

438 MALEKULA
to a loghov and to prevent any but those who have a right to do
so from going along it, the members of the society to which it
belongs set up the branches of the tree which is sacred to it at
the point where the private path diverges from the public way.
If the lodge is one of the Naai M6161» the ninggalat or nettle tree
is used ; it of the Nimzmgki Misi a small heap oi sticks is left,
cut from various of its sacred plants. The higher of a society,
though always tabu, is not permanently in use but is only occupied,
it seems, when novices are being initiated, during which time
they and the members reside there.
The stern rivalry which exists between the component societies
of the Nimangki Tlel, the Nimangki Misi and the Naai Mï¬Årdh,
is expressed in several ways amounting sometimes to an attitude
of deï¬Ånite hostility. Thus, if both societies are in seclusion at
the same time (for the performing of their rites), a band of
members of the one when strolling about will tabu the paths
along which they pass, so that the members of the other cannot
traverse them. Should a band of Nimangki Misi meet a band
of Nuai M61511 during this period of seclusion, a kind of ï¬Åght
ensues, those of each society belahouring or thrashing the others
with branches or leaves of the trees which are used for beating
novices at initiation. Even when neither society is in retire-
ment, the antagonism between the two is not allowed to die
down entirely, but it takes the form of the members of each
regarding the affairs of the other with a somewhat lofty unconcem,
The Nimzmgki Tlel as a whole is characterized by the
importance laid on certain sacred things or nisil tlal. Unlike the
m's1't tlel of the Nimmlgki Taghah, these are truly sacred; they
are mysterious objects the nature and construction of which are
known only to the initiates, and, to distinguish them from other
nisit tlel, they have the speciï¬Åc name of naai nob.‘ Each of the
two societies has its own distinct set of Mai ndh. There are
some minor differences between those of Nani Mdrï¬Åh and Ndwei
T avdt, and similarly between those of Nimangki Miri and Naai
Riwap, but these are not of great signiï¬Åcance. The most
important of the mm’ noh are certain objects manufactured in
the society’s lodge during the period when novices are secluded.
In the Nzlai Mdrdh they are, typically, a kind of screen made
‘ " This word is the same as that used ior death magic, but . t . I have
failed utterly to discover any connection between the two."-—~A. B. D.