[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
660 MALEKULA taken to imply that no such rite occurs. On the other hand, nothing is said of the ritual accompanying the making oi the two efligies used in the nitukuno dance, which appear in the account without antecedents. It is at least signiï¬Åcant that certain details are almost identical, as for instance the title of the " Red Kabat " or " Red Hambat " used by a magician concerned in the " Man Making" ceremony in both districts. We are therefore probably justified in suspecting that, were we to know more, the resemblances between the Nogho Tilabwe and the Nogharv N6mur would be even more striking than they are with the data before us. Thus, comparing the three districts of Seniang, Mewun, and Lambumbu, we ï¬Ånd that, despite their cultural and linguistic differences, a series of associated rites with their mythology links them together. The same system of totemism and clan fertility rites is present ; a ceremony for " making man â€ù and invigorating the neighbourhood, combined apparently with e harvest festival and a commemoration of the dead is owned and performed for the beneï¬Åt of all by a speciï¬Åc village in each district; sacred stones, the habitations of powerful tunes, are found in the sacred places of the villages from Tomman Island to Lambumbu, and sporadically throughout this area are found specimens of the sacred pottery. which like the sacred stones are used in the clan fertility rites. Finally, uniting all these elements there is the mythology of the Ambat, Kabat, or Hambat, beings whose names and characteristics prove them to be fundamentally identical. In Seniang the Ambnt are particularly connected with the little-known rites of Iumoran, and the sacred pottery is vaguely ascribed to them ; in Mewun they are intimately involved in the Nogho Tilabwe and closely associated with the sacred pottery ; while in Lambumbu Hambat is the founder oi, and his efligy is the object of, worship in the Nogharo Nï¬Åmur. It was pointed out in the last chapter that there is good reason to suppose that the nahal temes are associated with the mythology and cult of the Ambat-Kabat. It is true that there is no corre- spondence between the clan fertility ceremonies of villages so linked; thus Tenerniis “ makesâ€ù hreadfruit, while Benaur “ makes â€ù nikakal tubers and Lokhbangalou " makes â€ù yams and breadfruit, but Looru “ makes " famine by means of the “ famine stone ". Nevertheless, the treble bond between Melpmes and n~»~.w».-»-¢-r<- t I. E > Y k J 1
