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

462 MALEKULA
All these, like Mansip and his wives, are called temes, that is
they are regarded as beings who were once mortals. Nevin-
bumbaau is essentially connected with the bull-roarer (Pl. XVI,
5; c.f. f.n., p. 252), for she is the wife of Ambat Malondr, and
the noise of this instrument is her voice crooning her child,
Sasndaliep, to sleep. The whirring of the bull-roarer is the secret
sound of this society, and is very ileo. The principal ceremonial
of the Nevinbur appears to be the staging and performance of a
kind of drama of which the central‘ ï¬Ågures are these mythological
characters. It falls i.nto three main acts : the destruction of the
eï¬Åigies of the temes who are the grand-children of Mansip, these
eï¬Åigies being supposed to be rotten ; the construction of hundreds
of new eihgies of these lemes ; and ï¬Ånally the spearing to death
of Mansip and his two wives. The only clue to the real meaning
of this performance was the remark of one informant that “it
is like a resurrection ".
When a Nevinbw ceremony is going to be held a special
house is erected for the women, away from the village, in the
bush. Here they take all their meals and spend the day, although
it seems that they return to the village at night to sleep. A fence
about six feet high is then set up so as to enclose the plot o'f
ground on which the gongs stand, on all sides save that bordered
by the amel. Another fence of about the same height, is built
immediately in front of the amel, as is done for the incision
ceremonies. These fences are then decorated with the croton
nimweil mbzmg, which belongs to this society, and with the red
leaves of the mbwingmbwingamb. These fences are suihciently
high and dense to prevent anyone from outside spying upon
what is being done on the ground thus enclosed. Behind the
inner screen members of the society construct the efligies of
Mansip and his wives and the lemes which are their grandchildren.
The ï¬Ågure of Mansip is life-size ; it is made in the same way as
the efï¬Ågy, or rambaramp, of a dead man. The skull used for
the head is that of a former member of the society, the face
being modelled and painted in the usual manner. The only
difference between the representation of Mansip and a mmbammp
is that the former is placed in a sitting position. The ï¬Ågures of
Lisivu and Lieur are also made life-size in the same posture.
These three etï¬Ågies are then placed outside the enclosed dancing
ground, with their backs to the fence and facing the houses of
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