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290 MALEKULA
Tr-us PERFORMERS !N A Nimangki
When a man enters a Nimangki grade the festivities are
attended not only by the men of the candidate's own village
(and it seems by the women also), but also by people from
neighbouring hamlets. Most of these are only visitors, but
certain individuals have a special role to play, and it will, there-
fore, be convenient to have distinctive terms for them. The
two principal people concerned are the man who is making the
rise in rank, whom we may call the " candidate ", and the man
who helps him to make the necessary ritual objects and instructs
him generally; this last we shall refer to as the " introducer â€ù.
It is to this man that the candidate gives pigs, both in recompense
for his services and in payment for the various insignia of rank
which he acquires during the ceremonies. It seems that generally,
if not invariably, the introducer is a man from a neighbouring
village. In the ï¬Årst two or three grades he is always a relative
oi the candidate on the distafi side—his mother's brother or
mother's father—who, in this patrilineal, patrilocal community,
necessarily belongs to a rliï¬Åerent hamlet. In the higher grades,
although theoretically any member of the rank to which the
candidate desires to attain may be his introducer, it appears that
a maternal relative or other near kinsman from another village
is often chosen. Thus, on entering Naamel Amanrantus of
Looremew had Ainding Vaal, his sister's husband whom he
called ale, to act as introducer, and the same man performed
this part when Amanrantus entered Nahnimiial for the ï¬Årst
time. On this occasion he was unable, it seems, to complete
the necessary payments, so he entered the grade a second time,
when his introducer was a man called Aiel Ainding Vere, whom
he referred to by the term navuziungk in view of the fact that
Aiel’s father was Amanrantus’ “ classiï¬Åcatory " mother's brother.
Similarly when Tota of Ndawu became a member of Nimew, he
asked a man, Ates Vinbarnp of Nemep, to be his introducer—
a man who stood to him in the relationship of father’s mother's
sister's son, and whom Tota therefore addressed as iatai. On the
other hand there is certainly no rule in the matter, for when
Amanrantus entered Nimew, the man who performed this function
was not, it was said, related to him in any way.‘
I As has already been pointed out, owing to the wide range oi the kinship
terms in Senlflllg, every individual is related in a olassiï¬Åcltory Sense to every
.
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