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

522 MALEKULA
set up in pairs facing each other like the nami var used in the
ceremony of entering the Nivifat grade. If possible the skulls
oi dead members of this N alawan are attached to the top of each
upright. While this was being made the members of the Nevinbur
society retired to that most sacred part of a village behind the
amel, and thence issued a secret sound of that association,‘ which
is called tunes mwimafa, produced by some instrument of the
nature of which Amanrantus was ignorant}
When the bier had been placed on the Mai var, the gongs
were manned and the rhythm itu tale was beaten out to instruct
the spirit of the deceased to depart‘ The rhythm was then quickly
changed, ï¬Årst to the one called mum‘ and then to that called
mm‘ malandr ï¬Å ï¬Å i -131 -1 j ï¬Å which is played successively
Fm. 35. The design representing Ternes Savsap which is ‘
painted on the FUNERAL coverlet.
on all four kinds of gongsï¬Å This is a sign that the time has come
for the distribution of the pigs belonging to the deceased to his
friends. Apwil Naandu’s son, Vinmewun Ailiit took a number
of his father’s pigs and dragged them up to the gangs. An old
man of high rank in the Nimangki then came forward and spoke
the formula : " Nimbuas twtï¬Åt ran murlamp â€ù (“ The pigs of the
deceased, let them be distributed ") while the animals were handed
1 According to Layard‘s informant (P, 206), this sound is made by two
men blowing wooden cylinders (Lsmes naainï¬Ågo? and others blowing into young
c0Co—nuts (tiï¬Åzlflg) which had been cut in al but their milk retained, a high
piping noise being thus produced. These sounds are supposed to represent the
spirit of the dead man speaking. The men are not afraid but the women and
<(~.;hi1IElIren and others who do not know how they are made are ï¬Ålled with awe.-
‘ . W.
' Possibly all these three rhythms are beaten on the four different sides oi
gangs, but this is not perfectly clear ï¬Å’01n the notes.—C. H. W.
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