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

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238 MALEKULA
leaf is not clear. This is the Lagalag version of the prayer. In
Lambumbu a similar prayer is made, but it is addressed to the
woman's mother or her father's mother, with the following
words : “ Nitemah nin nï¬Ång gunggilnggilzo en vivinï¬Ång, isev
nombal mm ei, mum Melon saghan nggu ei. Kiwi mbesdng nam
bavi1Jilah," meaning “ Ghost of my mother! Watch over my
sister, he [the sister's husband] has given ndmbal leaf. I, I put
it unto thee here. Make thou her to have a quick delivery".
On the day oi her conï¬Ånement, when the woman begins to
feel the pains, all her female relatives gather in the house, together
with one old woman who acts as midwife. If the delivery is
long and difficult, some leaves of the creeper called nnwang -uibn
are squeezed into water and this is given to the patient to drink.
As soon as the child is born the midwife seizes its tongue, pulls
it out, and then allows it to slip back again. This is done that
the child may learn to talk easily and fluently as it grows older.
Throughout the birth the father and other men oi the village
have been waiting outside, for, as in Seniang, no man maybe
present at a conï¬Ånement, and it is now time to inform them of
what has happened. If the infant is a boy, the midwife _takes
a large leaf, arranges it somewhat like an inflated paper bag, and
then claps her hands on it, making a loud report. (This is termed
irï¬Årumban.) Should no such signal be given, the men will know
that a daughter has been born.
At some time during the birth ceremonies, a ï¬Åre has been
kindled in the hut and the midwife now takes the babe and rocks
it over this ï¬Åre (retagh mbi mbiel), but she does not wash it.
Whatever of the after-birth is on it is left untouched until the
infant receives its ï¬Årst ceremonial bath ï¬Åve days later. The
remainder of the after-birth (netzmgmm) is buried without oeremony
in a hole outside the house, or, in Larnbumbu, in that part of the
village where refuse, is thrown. When the umbilical stump
(mbmzn in Larnbumbu) falls off, the mother puts it in her mat-
head-dress and carries it about in this way until the baby has
learnt to toddle. A hole is then dug, somewhere near the village,
on ground belonging to, or rather held, by the father, that is on
land belonging to the father's (and hence to the cl1ild’s) clan.
The stump of the cord is thrown into this hole, and the child
is given a sprouting coco-nut which it plants on top, This
coco-nut is now the personal property of the child, and, when