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358 MALEKULA
kills ï¬Åve or six more pigs on top of it. Finally the most valuable
pig of all of the grade lip mums vaam, is handed up to him and
this also he kills. The carcase of this prize beast must then be
given to and eaten by the maternal uncle of the buyer.‘ The
name Saghsagh mal is connected with fliis special platform of
dead pigs, for saghsagh is derived from sa meaning to climb up,
and refers to the ascent of the platform by the buyer.
One of the songs sung at the N imangki held for the purchase
of this name, runs : " mitau mbwetar alup natau sen Lili melaun
natau hur nambwulat.â€ù The meaning is rather obscure. Natau
signiï¬Åes literally " the fowl ", but is here used to imply a small
pig ' ; mbwetar can be translated “ cut â€ù ; nambwulat is a dance
belonging alike to the Nimangki and the incision ceremonies.
Although we have no clearer or more detailed account of the
different rites connected with the purchase of objects at a
nelemew, two rather vivid descriptions have been preserved,
one of a big Nimangki, the other of a simple nelemew, at both
of which Deacon himself was present. The latter is unfortunately
incomplete, but nevertheless it is sufï¬Åciently long to give a
picture of the festival and to convey something of the social
atmosphere which accompanied it. Although it took plate a
few days after the N imungki, the account of it will be given first,
partly because of its fragmentary nature and partly because, as
a ceremony, it was the less imposing and the less complex oi
the two. V
“ On September 26th, 1926, the Nimangki dance nitmr hut
naai was danced by Nemwelew, and I Went with the party attending
the dance from the village of Lowag. The gongs of Nemwelew
announced the dance the day before and then again on the morning
of the day. My party, with three pigs, set out in the early after~
noon and reached Nemwelew at about four o'clock—the earliest
arrivals. Skirting the ï¬Årst houses of the village we reached the
dancing ground, swept clean and levelled, and looking very cool
and attractive with its border of white stones and croton bushes.
In the centre stood the new gongs, which were the occasion of the
dance. One of them had a conventional lozenge-shaped face,
painted red, white, and blue and with a most realistic (owl, carved
in wood and painted white with red crest and spotted breast,
‘ It seems possible, even perhaps probable, that this pig is the one paid to
ensure that at death the soul of the buyer shall go to the village of his mother's
people, Such a pig can, as stated above, be paid at the celebrating of any
Nimangki, but is doubtless seldom one of such great value as that mentioned
ab0ve,—C. HA W.
' Compare the use oi the word netsw ("fowl") in Seuiang.—G. H. W.
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