[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
45¢ MALEKULA Thus the plant commonly called naau vilavtil is known secretly as ndmbwolambwal, and the grass mum mindemmd as natal nembwand (" owl's food "). These grasses and creepers are smoked in the amel over a ï¬Åre which is kindled from the special wood mwzlaghlagh mug), and before they can he used they must be charmed by the nesnen. When they have been collected and hung up in the amel, the novices are brought in and instructed by the nzsnen in the secret names for them. Meanwhile, on either side of the cleared track which runs through the laghor (“ all same gov'ment road ") the lï¬Åmbzll line up, each armed with a bunch of nett1e~tree leaves. The novices now have to undergo what is probably their most severe beating. They are made to run up and down the track four times, while the tï¬Åmbat thrash them. The nettle-tree is extremely painful and none of the lads are able to sleep for many nights after this flogging. When it is over the tdmbat begin to make the naai nï¬Åh, and instruct the novices in the art. It appears that every member has the right to make one of these, and certainly there is one constructed for each novice. The designs with which they are painted are always selected from among those which belong to the society whose rites are being performed, but it seems that a man is not at liberty to choose the motif for his naai Mh at random. The right to paint a certain design is acquired for a boy when he is still quite small by a payment which his father makes to his son's matemal uncle (bimbi). The novices are also occupied in learning the songs of their society’s dance and the elements of the dance itself. This occupies another ï¬Åve days, at the end of which the ï¬Årst trial performance of the dance (nagharoian) takes place.‘ A fence of wild canes, called nmmr raghragh, is put up and round this the no:/ali dance. It is a rough model of the nenrar nan lam which is used on the final day for the public periormance of the dance. Eight days later the canes are replaced by posts oi nivilend for the making of the nenrar mm lam. When this is ï¬Ånished all the men in the loghnr go down to bathe in the sea or river. Meanwhile the women of the village are engaged in 1 At this point ucacciri account of the Nivnangki Tlal, which he had hcguii to wiicc up and which is zhmicic more ci- less clear, breaks oï¬Å, and BS an indication of what happens during the remainder of the ceremonies we have only fragmentary notes, many of them containing so many technical terms in the nltlve dialect that they are almost incomprehensible. It must be realized thereime that what follows is not to be relied upon as either wholly accurate or in any way complete.-c. H. W.
