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

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694 MALEKULA
is, of course, a tendency for nimbatin nawor who are exceptional
men with exceptional powers, to oombine the function of a public
official with clairvoyance and the knowledge of the whole gamut
of death and sickness magics.1 Where this is the case, these
three activities are entirely distinct, just as the two types of
magic, public and private, are distinct. The position and the
knowledge of how to perform the clan fertility ceremonies is
passed on from a man to his eldest son. The necessary ritual
may be taught only to this boy (or if there be no son, to some
other near kinsman oi the same clan) and cannot be sold to
others. In Mewun the same rule holds and at Melpmes initiation
or induction to this office is accompanied by a six months’
seclusion in the house of Butwanabaghap, which stands in the
logho of this village. It will be remembered with reference to
these men of Melpmes, that they are distinct from all other clan
magicians of their district, that they have special funeral rites
and a special land of the dead.
Finally Deacon writes of these clan magicians :—
"Although nimbalin noww and nmughut nogho have been
translated ‘clan-magician ’, it must he pointed out that this is
not a. wholly satisfactory rendering of those words. The rites
performed in connection with the nmew, nogha, nagharv, etc., are
in many cases essentially magical in the sense in which this word
has been deï¬Åned by Sir James Frazer, working on the imitative
or other principles. But most clan tahu—places contain a sacred
stone, which, as mentioned already, is generally supposed to be
the residence of a powerful ghost. It is clear that in many cases,
as for instance, in the memo of war, these stones, or rather their
indwelling ghosts, are addressed by the nimbatin nowor with e
prayer (nitamale) for the increase of the plant, animal, or other
object. It appears, therefore, that the memo contains two distinct
elements, but unfortunately we have not suï¬Åicient data to show
how far each enters into the performance of the nimbalin nnwar.
In the Big Nogho at Melpmes the invigorating of the district by
the washing of the image of the Kabat is a rite wherein the two
elements seem to be intermingled. Probably this is true oi others
1 In one iroto Dmcon writes that the men who perform the ceremony for
the increase oi pigs by menus of uro sacred pottery at Tivulomp are not called
nimbatm OIOIIIDV “because they only know how be more increase of'Pi8!. hrrt
have ho further powers This is almost certainly a mistake, for he says else-
where 1 " The fact that most nnnbalias nowor are also private death-magic (atc.)
sorcerer: led mo it ï¬Årst to Confuse their public and private characters. Tho
distinction is however essential." It will be noticed on the list on p. soc that
besides pigs, Tivulemp has the power to increase ï¬Åsh. It is possible that the
true ninibalin nowpr of this village was the oooii who performed the fertility
ceremony for these, roe not ho who controlled the increase of pigs4—C. 1-LW.
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