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


THE NIMANGKI AND NELEMEW 359
the to of it The painting of both the face and
perched stiflly on p .
the fowl had a sugary quality which gave the gong exactly the
appearance of a tall cake capped with rich icing sugar and
surmounted by a Noah's Ark fowl, which had also become
inadvertently iced (v. Fig. 20).
' d 'tin for
" On the edge of the dancing ground we halte , wai g
the ‘home village ') to man the gangs and strike up
our hosts ( -
the rhythm which announces the presentation of giibpigs. The
' art assed leisurely across the
gong-heaters having begun, our p y p
ground towards the amel side, each man holding his pig by its

Z
F15. Z0. The carved and painted gong sunnounted by a cook
carved in wood, which was "bought " by Mal Tasi at his
nelamnu. (After a rough sketch by the author.)
tether. Here Maltasi, the ‘ maker ’ of the nelzmew, that is, the giver
of the feast, was sitting and to him the pigs were given one after
another, the gongs indicating by a sudden fortissimo burst the act
of presentation. Our host was, poor fellow, a victim of elephantiasis,
and his testicles were swollen to such a size that he could sit down
only with difficulty and could scarcely stand up at all. But it
was his day; his eyes shone with excitement and hobbling and
shuffling about, helped by others, he managed to receive the pigs
presented to him with due oiï¬Åciousness and dignity. We now
sat down by the amel and awaited the arrival of the guests from