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

496 MALEKULA
These days of preparation are also passed in cleaning and
decorating the tan langambas. This is the dancing ground of the
society, a clearing in the bush some little way from the village.
Round about it the women plant mluo and mum) (P cordyline)
trees and a clump of the same is also planted in the centre, with
a single neluv tree in the middle.
On the morning of the seventh day, the women remove
the nikamb from the hut and place it near the trees in the centre
of their dancing ground. Other women now begin to arrive from
far and near, and the festivities start in good earnest. First the
women of the candidate's own village dance 1 ; then they retire
and the visiting women perform. A little later the men begin
to arrive, some only for the purpose of watching, others to dance.
The latter paint their faces, put on all their ï¬Ånery, and approach
the tan lzmgamlms with shouts. The women who are guests
continue their performance near the centre of the ground ; the
men dance in a ring outside them, while the women of the home
village form up in single ï¬Åle and dance at one side. When they
have all ï¬Ånished the men come up to these last and receive
from them a pig in acknowledgment of their services. ' ,
Now the candidate is initiated into sundry sacred things. She
is shown or given a live snake (malghari miel) from which the
scales have been stripped, and also some other creature, called
tenet zlughlugh (perhaps a scorpion). She is also invested with
three objects which have not been described, mlimbe, nemarï¬Åh,
and neteval nisit tlel (also called mbomv lung). For each of these
things she pays a pig, The ï¬Ånal rite is her investiture with the
new name or title. This can be purchased from any woman who
herself possesses it, or if a certain woman is dead it may_ be
purchased from her through her brother or son or son’s son who
is living. The pig which is given for this new title plays, it seems,
the same role as the pig given “ for the Nimangki " plays in the
rites of that society. It is brought on to the dancing ground,
fastened to the mluv tree planted in the centre, and later handed
to the woman or man who dubs the candidate Léghil or Lisevsep,
according to the grade she is entering.“
1 There is nothing to Shflw whether a woman Celebrates her entrance to
a Langambas grade in her home village or in the village of her husband ; " the
r(::anldIide{)t€Ie’s own village “ refers to that where the ceremonies are being held.-
‘ At some time during the Lnngumlms rites, perhaps at the payment of the
principal pig, the iollowing formula is spoken: " Mbdriria miliambs malelevil