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

THE NALAWAN SOCIETY 399
on this occasion. When the dance is ended the candidate kills
a mbuas Mos pig for the performers to eat. Day having dawned,
dancers and candidate all go together to cut a bamboo (nambm
namlmngk). This is decorated with croton leaves and planted
outside the amel, a little to the right-hand side of it.‘ (If there
are several candidates, a bamboo is cut for each, and all are
planted in this position in a straight line.) The carved posts
are then brought out of the amel; the two made of tree-fern
are planted upright on either side of the candidate's decorated
bamboo, the female on the right-hand side of the male, and the
long bamboo with the faces of the “ children " is laid across
their top, the heads of the “ mother â€ù and " father â€ù being cleft
so that it rests secure. If there is more than one candidate,
each has his own pair of tree-fern images, but it seems that a
single cross-pole is used for all. Thus if many are entering the
grade there is a line of decorated bamboos (mzmbm mzmbzmgk) ;
and alternating with these bamboos are a number of upright
carved tree-fern posts all united by a long transverse pole with
a face carved at either end. This is the structure called naainggol,
which gives its name to this N alzm/an (v. Fig. 23). On the same
day that the naainggal is erected the candidate pays a further
pig to his introducer for the decorated bamboos? All the
preparations being now completed, the gongs are beaten at
sunset with the rhythm naml ms, followed by that of aisumqï¬Åndew,
the signal for members of the N alawan in the neighbouring villages
to come for the ceremonies and dances of the morrow.
Next morning many men come, and the dance nimnumbal
is started, the visitors, candidate, and introducer all performing,
this time to the accompaniment of the gongs. At about three
o'clock in the afternoon the introducer takes a coco-nut in one
hand and a conch shell in the other, and calls-out : " Ai-—ai-—m' ! "
to which the candidate replies. The rhythm mai -uihoirm is
beaten and the candidate and introducer dance round the gongs
in opposite directions, as is done when “circlingâ€ù for pigs.
Then the latter hands the coco-nut to the candidate and dances
back away from the gongs. The coco-nut which is thus given
is one which has begun to sprout and its function is exactly
* In referring to the position of objects in the dancing ground, it is supposed
that the observer is standing with his back to the amal and looking towards
the dwelling huts.-—C. H. W. .
’ To make this payment is termed ikimmu.—-A. B. D.
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