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

61 6 MALEKULA
went in the south has been lost, but it was celebrated formerly
in the now extinct village of 'Iumoran on Tornman Island.’ In
Mewun it was known as the Nagho Tilabwz, or “ Great Noghn f’,
and in Larnburnbu as the Nogharo N6mur or the “ Nogharomf
Man ". Whether it ever existed among the Big Narnbas we do
not know, but in Lagalag and Nesan it is not to be found and
for its absence here we have positive as well as negative evidence,
the indications being not that it has disappeared as a result
of depopulation, as has happened in the south, but that it never
existed in these two districts. '
The names Nagho Tilabu/z and Noghara Ntim/ur suggest that
this rite is of the nature of one of the ordinary clan fertility
ceremonies, but it differs from them in certain respects, notably
in the fact that, though owned and primarily performed by one
village, it concems intimately the whole district and is apparently
attended by persons from all villages. In Seniang and Wilemp
thcrc were, further, two fertility rites, called respectively Naerew
Rahulzrmp and Nenew Mbatiar, which combined the functions
of a harvest festival and a commemoration of the dead, and
which were almost certainly closely allied to the ceremony for
tho “making of man ", though they do not appear themselves
to contain any obvious rites for human fertility.
But before giving an account of these and of the Nogiio
Tilabwa and Nogharo Nï¬Åmur, it is necessary to have some
knowledge of the mythology with which they are bound up—the
mythology concerning those supcrmen or culturc~hcroes known
variously as /lmbat, Kabat, Hamba or Hambut.
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