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

484 MALEKULA
sloping roof which reaches to the ground on either side. The two
upright posts are carved ; the tree-fern into the efï¬Ågy of a man,
the nettle~tree in the form of a woman, and around the latter
a mat-skirt is fastened as is the manner with women of this
district. These posts are called temes : temes naai ira and temes
m'nggalat.1 In front of this hut, forming a kind of door, two trees
are raised, one of the variety called mzluv lupus, the other called
naawus mbala, together with an object named nimbat nauwi.
This last is made from a wild cane (nauwi) with its leaves twisted
around it and fastened at the top in a knot. Encircling the
neium limbwelimp a number oi croton bushes are planted of the
variety mmi nggerei.
This structure being ï¬Ånished, a woman of high rank now
prepares the special Lupus head-dress called nemztemet nozmd.
This looks not unlike a basket with a plait hanging clown the back
(see Pl. XVIIA). The specimen made on this occasion is painted
red, white, and black (or blue), and is kept in the mi/aval. In
return for this woman’s services, and for the privilege of being
shown the head-dress, the candidate pays its maker with a large
sow (m'm'masin]. She also pays sows for the carving of the two
temes 2 and for the mat-skirt fastened around the temes ninggalat.
At some time, perhaps now, perhaps later, the girl also pays a
sow for the permission to wear shell armlets “ made in imitation
of curved boar's tusks.
These preparations have taken about four days to complete.
On the ï¬Åfth day since the beginning of the seclusion, the Lupus
dance is performed. The women who are already members of
the society paint their faces with alternate stripes of red and
black, put on their sacred head-dresses,‘ and form up into a
procession, those of the highest rank being at the front and rear.
In the middle is the candidate. In this order they dance in single
1 Another note states that the side posts have also iaces and that the whole
hut resembles an nmel. There must be some contusion here, between the miilum
limbwzlzmp and the nivaual for, from the description of the former, given above,
it does not appear to have any side-posts, and this is borne out by a rough sketch
of the building which has been found in one of the ï¬Åeld note-b00ks.—C. H. W.
I This payment is termed ikikina as is the payment for carving the faces
of the tamer in the Nimangki rii:es.—-C. H. W.
’ The number is not speciï¬Åed, but they are referred to in the plural.-
C. I-L W.
' It is not quite clear what women are privileged to wear the nmzmet naimrl ;
in some places it seems to be implied that all full members of the Lupus can
do so ; in others that only those who belong to its higher grades have the right.