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

546 MALEKULA
nimetm mew “the eye of the term pigeon ", the sign of the
Nimangki Neliwis. The two faces on the shoulder are noon
mvinbur (noon = face), the sign of membership of the Nevinbur
society. The black feather in the hair is a token of the N imangki
in general, and is used in decorations for any grade thereof;
the hawks’ feathers (nimew nambul) at the right-hand side of
the head denote the number of grades the man has entered, one
feather being, as we have seen, bought at entrance to each.
The leg-band on the left leg is one of the kind called nimbinben
mliwis, sign of the grade neliwis, which is only worn for two
or three days during the feast which celebrates its purchase and
is then resold; the band on the right leg is also called neliwis
and is the badge of that grade which is worn permanently. The
conch shell ï¬Åxed to the left arm is one of the shells which a man
making a rise of rank in the N imqmgki breaks against a pig’s fore-
head as a memorial of his entry to that rank. All such shells
are preserved, and when he dies the shell broken on the last
occasion on which he performed this ceremony is fixed to the
left arm of his rambammp. The two vertical " shoulder poles "
with faces on them are called nimew. They represent the nimew
made at entrance into the grade of this name. The faces on these
poles are noon nimew.
The other mmbaramp reproduced on Plate XX, 2, also in the
museum at Melbourne, is a memorial of another great man. It
differs from the one just described in certain aspects of its
decoration ; a number of representations of ï¬Åsh (made from
strips of cane covered with large dried leaves) hang over the chest
and one down the back. Of special interest is the mask which
this rambammj: wears; it is one of those called temes malau
which form part of the regalia of those who are members of the
N alawan Nimbwilei grades. The mask was acquired in I888, and
it is by no means certain that it originally belonged to this
rambarnmji, which also was collected at Port Sandwich in 1890.
After the effigy has been borne from one place to another, in
the manner described in the funeral of Apwil Naandu, it is
placed in the amel. At the Nenew Rahulemp, when the dead are
commemorated, sprigs of croton, mahmdr, and other plants,
according to the grades of the deceased in the Nalawrm and the
Nimangki, are thrust into the armlets and belt of the effigy,
but no special care is taken to preserve it, and eventually it
l , ..