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

272 MALEKULA - ‘-
Seniang district, of N alauen of Lambumbu, and of the N imangki
Tlel or " Sacred Nimangki â€ù of Lagalag,
-The principal public ceremonial of the Nimangki is that
which takes place when a man makes a rise in rank. Entrance
to a grade necessitates payments, often on a large scale, by the
aspirant to those who are already members of it. These pay-
ments are made for certain rights and privileges, which are
exercised by members of a grade and are “ sold " by them to
the candidate at the ceremony oi his admission, and also for
certain ornaments and structures which he assumes or uses
during the ritual. The payments are made in pigs; thus one
pig may be given for “making Nimangki â€ù, that is for the
privilege of admission to the new grade ; and one pig each for
such objects as the carved wooden images which are set up on
the dancing ground; for the head-dress of these images; for
the spear or hammer used in killing the pigs ; for certain trees
planted during the ceremonial; for stone circles sometimes
placed around the images or trees; and for paints used in
decorating the candidate or the image. Of all these pigs, the
most important is that paid for “ making Nimangki ". This is
always the most valuable animal, and in general in Malekula,
this is the only one of those paid which is killed during the rites.
Seniang
According to tradition, the N inumgki was instituted in
Seniang by Nevinbumbaau, the ogress who is also associated
with the Nsuinbur ceremony, with the Nalazewm and with the
mythology of the culture heroes called the Ambai br0t.hers.1
This society is by no means conï¬Åned to this region of Malekula,
but the bulk of information concerning it was acquired in Seniang.
Here its religious aspect is much more evident than that of the
Banks Islands’ Sukwe, but it is nevertheless primarily a secular
organization. It is composed of some thirty-two different
grades, which are entered successively by men desirous of prestige
among their fellows and possessed of suï¬Åicient wealth to satisfy
1 Layard, however, records (pp. 175-6) a myth which attributes the intro-
duction of the Nimangki to a. being called Atimis Malau, who is represented as
coming out of the ground, peopling the village of Nemep, and introducing yams
and pigs, This myth is curious, for Atimis Malau cannot be other than Texnes
Malau, who, as we shall see, is connected with the Nalawan society rather than
with the Niwuwgki.-—C. H. w. -
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