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

RITUAL LIFE or WOMEN 479
the grade to which a woman belongs the more potent is her
/ quality of ignh, even as in the Nimangki the higher a rnan’s
status the more strongly ileo he is. The parallelism must not,
however, be carried too far, for small children as well as all
women are regarded as iguh. It may be inferred, therefore, that
the possession of the quality oi igah does not depend solely upon
membership of the Lap/zs, but rather that such membershp,
particularly of the high grades, greatly increases it. When a
small boy enters the Nimomgki and leaves his mother's hearth,
he ceases to be igah and becomes instead in a very mild
degree flan.
THE Lupus or Semzmc.
The ceremonies oi the Lupus take place in a house called
m'1/aval which is built far away in the bush. In this house there
are two tame: or human efligies, one of a man, the other of a
woman. These are potently igah, and have great power to inflict
harm on any man, principally by neutralizing or destroying his
state of ilea, but they are also said to have the power of killing
him. Their position in the Lupus and towards men in general
may be compared with that of the stone set up at entrance to the
Nimangki grade Nam Wmnung, which can inflict disease and
even death on a woman or a man of lower rank who dares to
approach it.‘ In this same house there is kept also the most
igah object of all, a kind of basket head-dress called ms melemet
narmd lapas, which may be assumed only by women who have
purchased the three highest grades of their society. Any
man who by accident or intent passed nearby or entered the
house containing this head-dress would forthwith lose his state
of ileo. Even it he were man of the highest Nimzmgki rank and
therefore possessed oi a great degree of ilm all this would pass
irom him and he would become “ like a child" so potent is the
quality of igah attached to the nemetemzt noomi. He would
lose his Nimangki rank and Nimnngki title, and men would call
him by his personal name; he would be treated with ridicule,
contempt, or pity until he had collected sufficient wealth of pigs
I It is just possible um in his statements concerning these two eagles,
Deacon is confusing the nivaval with the house erected in the clearing nearby
for 1 woman who it entering a Laps: degree. The front and back p05¢S 01 this
house are two (anus and it is snjtl that when these 8117 Set up tor I W0mun
entering 1 high rank they are very dangerous to men. (See below.)-—C, H. w.