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

xviii PREFACE
of things â€ù. It was a great relief to him to conï¬Åde in his mother
and he once wrote " how incredibly glad " he was that she “ has
been able to follow me in my work ". As a matter of fact,
Deacon had really done very ï¬Åne work in the South-West Bay
area.
It was here that he discovered the existence of the remarkable
geometrical designs drawn by the natives on sand. He at once
perceived that these drawings had considerable ethnological
importance and assiduously collected a large number ot them
not only throughout Malekula, but also later in Ambrym, and
he obtained others from a native of Epi. We intended to
incorporate the geometrical ï¬Ågures in this volume, but as they
would add greatly to its cost we have decided to issue them in
a separate publication.
On zoth June, I926, Deacon wrote: “I am leaving for
Lambumbu to~morrow, where I shall probably remain for six
weeks or so. I am really feeling very depressed about the state
of affairs here, there is simply no life left in the people. I . .
I am hoping to ï¬Ånd something better at Lamburnbu, but am
much afraid I shall not." In October he wrote: "While I
have been here there has been a ‘flu epidemic beginning apparently
in Santo, and spreading like a scourge through all the islands.
The death-rate has been ghastly, Here, in one village of twenty
people, nine died in one week. To my knowledge, in Telag
district, where I am working, with a population of about 250,
twenty-two men died. . . . The present appalling death-rate
is a consequence of the lapse of the performance of the Nogharo
ceremonies in this district, in itself a consequence of the dis-
appearance of the Lembelag clan, only one man remaining
[only members of this clan could perform the ceremonies]. The
N ogharo were life-giving ceremonies which occurred every eight
years, the object of which was to ‘ make man ', i.e. invigorate
and increase the district. . . . On them depended the
maintenance of the life of the district, the birth of children,
the invigoration of adults, the power to resist sickness (magic).
. . . In the village where I am living one died of dysentzy yester-
day, another last week. And so many, so terribly many, are
the old men, the last men who ‘ know ’. My best informant,
Kukan, a ï¬Åne old man, died of pneumonia following ’ï¬Åu a month
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