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

448 MALEKULA
While this ceremony has been going forward, the other
members of the society are engaged in building the naumal am
in the loghor. This is a solid house built in the usual style of an
amzl and thatched with saga-palm. Here the master of the
initiation ceremonies, the nesmm, lives, and for the ï¬Årst few days
the novices with him. The evening of this day when the rite
nenap is pertomaed and the naamel um completed marks the
beginning of the period of seclusion.
The ï¬Årst people to retire to the loghor are the novices, called
nthzali, in charge of the master of the ceremonies (mmm), who
leads them in a troop to the sacred place where they all sleep
in the newly~erected house. The novices may, theoretically, be
of any age, but they are generally young boys. The nesnm,
meaning literally the “ gut " or "intestine ", is usually a rather
old man, who has been through many seclusions in the loghor
of the society and has assisted at many initiations. He it is who
possesses the knowledge of all the spells and charms (m'mmn-
wzzim) which have to be muttered over the different materials
used in the making of the mar‘ n6h; he is the repository of all
the secrets and traditions of the society. As one nnnen becomes
old, he instructs some other member oi long-standing in these
matters and dubs him the new msnen, so that when he himself
dies the continuity of the tradition may not be broken, Each
society generally has two or three msnen alive at the same time,
and one of them must be present at every celebration of the
initiation rites. His special business is to look after, instruct,
and discipline the novices. He is like an old school-master going
about with them everywhere and keeping them in order. His
surveillance is very strict indeed, and their every action must
be sanctioned by him. Thus a boy wishing to make water or
to excrete must ï¬Årst ask permission of the nzsnen to leave the
house, and it is the same with everything a novice wants to do.
Apart from the rigid obedience which the nesmn demands
of them, and beyond the thrashing with the nettle-tree leaves
which they undergo from time to time, the lads are not subjected
to any special hardships, though their life is not an easy one.
There are, for instance, certain food tabus which they have to
observe and their meals are far from appetizing. Thus they may
not drink water, eat anything which comes from the sea, nor
touch pork, and the yams which they are given are cooked