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

464 MALEKULA
but it seems that usually several men will enter at one and the
same time, When all the preparations have been completed,
each candidate brings a pig on to the dancing ground and pays
it to the man, a member of the Nevinbur, from whom he is
buying admittance. Whether this man is of necessity related
to the candidate in any special way is not clear. On one occasion
he stood to the purchaser in the position of teta, " classiticatory "
father, but this may have been a coincidence. The recipient of
the pig passes it on to some friend of his, who apparently keeps
it, for the animal is not killed and eaten. The reason for this
abstemiousness is doubtless that the pig which is thus paid
for entrance is a female, nivinrasin. This is a rather surprising
feature, for such a beast is the very" antithesis of ileo, and only
women would eat it. Deacon commented on this, and his informant
fully appreciated the contradiction that a beast so “ profane "
should be a part of so " sacred â€ù a ceremony, but he maintained
that this was indeed the case, he knew not why. Another pig,
this time a male animal, is then paid " for Mansipâ€ù, and is
killed by the candidate with a pig-killing hammer (nu:/ii matmut).
This being over, four men, members of the Nevinbur, carr~yfour
temes nevinbur out of the amel. Each of these is made of a short
stick or bamboo, near the top of which is aï¬Åixed a head modelled
in clay and painted (see Pl. XVI). The men take up their positions
just inside the enclosure, immediately behind the place where
Mansip's house has been set up, and holding the temes nevinbur
aloft, so that their heads are visible over the top of the fence,
they begin to dance. To the spectators outside it appears as
though the four lame: themselves were dancing, the effect being
somewhat similar to that of a “ Punch and Judy â€ù show. An
old man,1 also a member of the society, now comes out oi the
enclosure, carrying in his hand a wooden pig-killing hammer,
and goes to that place in the fence over the top of which the
temes are to be seen. As their heads appear, he smashes them
with his hammer, thus destroying them. Of this it is said:
"Noul m'n iwis, mrar temes tisile " (“ the maggot oi them it
1 According to one of the ï¬Åeld note-books, this old man is a member of
the Nulau/an grade Vinmbamp, Whether it is always a. man of this grade who
kills the tzmes, or whether it only happened that he was so on the occasion of
which the informant was thinking; is not clear. It is interesting that in the
same note-book, it is said to be this same person who later kills Mansip. Should
it be a regular practice for a man of this grade to play this part, the-n it forms an
interesting link between the Nalawan and Nzvinbur societies.—C, H. W4