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

THE NIMANGKI TLEL SOCIETY 451
really counts is having gone through the loghor, not so much the
knowledge of the construction of the masks, etc., revealed there.
A man asks another, or one boy another, ' Hulel nggiap P Vvhere
were you Zel P ’) meaning ‘in what lodge were you in e lel P '
(lel = holy, sacred), ‘ in what lodge were you initiated ? ’, and they
compare experiences and yarns. The attitude is almost exactly
that of a public school man asking another, ' Where were you
at school .9 ' Men who, for some reason, have never been initiated
into the Ntmnngki Tlel are ‘out of it ' ; they are rather ashamed
of the fact, and there is a slight conscious inferiority. Similarly,
men who have been iombat together are, for instance, like mcn who
have rowed in the same boat, or belonged to the same set at college.
What non-members ieel most, I think, is not their lack of know-
ledge of the secrets of the Nimangki Tlel, but their unacquaintance
with the lite of the loghor, its atmosphere. They feel that a bond
exists between initiates in which they have no share."
On the ï¬Ålth day after nmsensonggor the Mvali are invested
with a further badge of the Nimangki Tlel-the naai mbis, This
consists of two sprays of croton which are thrust into the novices‘
belts at the back, one on either side, with a leaf of the nettle-
tree between them. Payment for this must be made to a man
standing in the relationship of mother's brother to the novice,
either the real mother's brother or a " classiï¬Åcatory â€ù one. So
far as could be ascertained, this is the only occasion in the rites
of the Nimangki T lel in which payment must be made to a
speciï¬Åc relative. On this day also, or perhaps ï¬Åve days later
(the notes at this point are not clear), when all the wmbat are in
vp‘s:identle;'alll*ith0se in the loghor, including the msnm and the
11ovi{3es~,l|go"d0wn--and bathe in the sea or river, after which the
each’-novice a clean head-band (naau s6s).
‘ -‘1'1F0_r 'th‘e17ne‘x~t- ï¬Åve‘ days the tbmbat, who hitherto have been
'staying“in -'the=‘hou'se of the msmn, are engaged in the erection
ofvltheir umeli in the lnghor, the amel mbatu lung. This is much
like ‘the house which they built for the novices, but rather more
solid in construction. There are now three dwellings in the
loghm ; the amel am in which the msnen lives, the amel mbuh
lm nduop for the novices, and the amel mbatu lamg for the tï¬Åmbal.
When this third house is ï¬Ånished the initiated members go out
in bands to seek the various materials, grasses, and creepers
necessary for the constniction of the naai ndh. These are brought
back and hung up in coils in the amel mbatu ll/mg, each one being
marked with a leaf indicating its owner. Besides its common
name, everyone of these materials has its sacred loghm name.