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586 MALEKULA ,
‘put on a platform and his body allowed to decompose until only
the skeleton was leit. Sometimes a ï¬Åre was lighted beside the
platform to hasten decomposition, as is done in the Western
districts, but this does not appear to have been a very general
practice. The platform was usually erected inside the house
of the deceased, though occasionally it was placed outside. It
the dead man, whether of high or low status, were a member of
a Nimzmgki grade, as for instance, of Barang, then at the next
celebration of the rites of entrance into this grade his skull and
bones would be exhumed and the candidate who was purchasing
membership on this occasion 1 would dance round the gangs
carrying the skull. After this it would be taken and ï¬Ånally
disposed in thccharnel-house, the mt ken, of the clan. Here,
as in the west, it is placed in a little stone chamber composed
of small uprights‘ and a single covering slab. As an alternative
to this Nimmigki ceremony, the removal of the skull to the clan
ossuary might take place on the occasion of a Rm/m celebration.
The Ruan is, as we have seen, an association probably identical
with the N alawzm of South-West Bay, so that here again we ï¬Ånd
a parallel between the funerary practices of Senbarei and Mewunl
Nothing is recorded of the land to which the souls of the dead
of Senbatei go, but in the neighbouring district of Uerik there
is a belief in an underground world of the dead called Lambie,
which name is probably the same as the Iambi of Lambumbu
and the Embw of Seniang. ’
Thus it is clear that throughout Malekula, or at least through-
out the coastal districts thereof, both east and west, there is at
bottom a very general uniformity in funerary practice and in
the beliefs about the dead. The sacred place of the clan, whether
callcd nembrmbrkon, logho, wut maul, ut lalo, or mt kon, is every-
where the clan charnel-house ; the skulls of men of high social
standing are preserved in all districts, and while in Seniang they
are incorporated into the rambamnglr, elsewhere they arc housed
in miniature stone chambers in the sacred place. The actual
methods of primary disposal vary somewhat, but exposure on a
bier or platform, with decomposition artificially hastened by the
lighting of a ï¬Åre near by, or the constant washing of the corpse,
seems the rule for people of any importance, except in Larnburnbu
1 Deacon was not quite certain whether it was the candidate who danced
with the skull,—C. H. W. .