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

RITES OF BIRTH AND INITIATION 255
that it may look as though he had huge testicles, and thus dis»
ï¬Ågured he will dance before the boys, who are made to touch him.
The horror of these experiences for the boys lies not only in
their strangeness but in the belief that all these ï¬Ågures which
they see and are made to touch are really ghosts (temuh). At the
end of each exhibit, however, the secret of the deception is revealed
to them ; they are taught exactly how the “ hoax " was carried
out, and in this way the mystery is dispelled, and they learn
how to perform it themselves against the time when, as grown
men, they will have to play their part in the incision ceremonies
of other young boys.
' At some time during the seclusion, generally on the tenth
day, a rather curious ceremony is performed, the signiï¬Åcance of
which is not clear. The paternal aunt of each candidate goes up
near the seclusion house and cries out: "Nzmgg0—1zongga—
nunggu—-/nonggo I X»-—, come out here, the rats are making a
mess on your bed, come, clean it up neatly ! â€ù (“ Xi, gem/elem
veri, nelambut itamtum len nenrang tvmggu, gevwelem, buwurumr
bagha ! "). In reply to this all the men in the house yell out
together, making a terrible noise so that the boys cannot be
heard. The paternal aunt then cries out again : " He .’—He ./—
He !-—-He !~He I," to which the men reply once more by yelling,
after which the woman departs. For this service the father
oi the candidate pays his sister a pig}
When the twentieth day after incision has come, the last
day of the sechmion, the men go out to some open place in the
bush near the amel naavavien, and set up an avenue of crossed
reeds. The leaves in which the candidates’ food has been cooked
during the whole period of seclusion are collected, thrust into a
coco-nut~leaf basket and hung up on a tree overlooking this
avenue. The boys now have their faces painted red and, carrying
their bows and arrows and accompanied by their guardians,
they leave their house and walk up to the avenue. Here they
ï¬Ånd that men have lined up along either side of it, armed with
sticks, and both the boys and guardians are made to run the
gauntlet the length of the avenue, but only the guardians are
beaten; the boys are left untouched. When this is over the
- 1 "Compare this with the fact cm: the father does not go to the incision
house, though the mothers brother may and does do so; and also with the
ï¬Åght between the mother's brother and the father over incision at South-West
Bay."—A. B. D.