[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
RITUAL LIFE or WOMEN 459 beside the girl's head is a tare leaf (nzselflng) ï¬Ålled with water into which the blood from the wound flows.‘ When the teeth have been removed the girl continues to remain in seclusion for another ten days, after which she is allowed to return home to her father or husband and resume her normal life. It may be at this point in the proceedings, or it may he on the evening of the day on which the incisors were knocked out, that the dance naawiis nembelnng is performed. This is the dance which is specially associated with nimbaghai and with other ceremonies oonneeted with a woman's rise in social status. The men gather together and sing the song called mam mrï¬Åt, to which they mark time with bamboo sticks which they beat on the ground; the women meanwhile do the dancing. On the morning after this performance the father or husband of the candidate makes the necessary payments for these ceremonies. One pig is given to her maternal uncle ; one to each of her grandfathers ; and one to her paternal aunt. The old woman who did the operation, the nimogh temu, is also recompcnsed for her trouble, but we are not told what is given to her.â€ù It seems that to go through the nimlzaglxai rites is the ï¬Årst step to he taken in ascending the social ladder. After this a woman can gain further importance by means of giving—— or rather by her husband giving on her behalf —a successive number of feasts. These feasts are classed collectively as Lughlughian, and are said to correspond to the nelemzw oi the men ; they are even sometimes spoken of as Mlemew laghah, that is “ the unclean nelemew ". The general rule is for a girl to have her ï¬Årst lug};- lughizm ieast immediately after the extraction of her teeth, forming as it were an integral part 0! the mmbaghai ceremony. She comes out of the nium tï¬Åmbu/aY—probably at the end of her last ten days’ seclusion-—and after distributing pigs to certain people (who they are is not mentioned) she is dubbed with her new title, Vwitar Mbwil.’ I According to dn= note the girl is made to lie on a bed of taro leaves dining 21¢ dpglnzidn, The accuracy ni this statement is probably qu:5ti0nuble.—~ H I The notes further suggest that the candidate herself is paid ior having undergone the operation, but this seems very im rubable. A more correct interpretation would seem to be that her father Or iiusband gives her the pigs, flehï¬Åhmhen hands over to the l'€i3.ClV!¢S mentioned above nnd to the operator. = It seems possible um these pigs given for her new title are C119 same 85 those, mentioned above, which are given to her maternal uncle, her grand- iathers, nnd paternal nnnc. Before she has purchased this title she ranks Vwitar Vilv-il.—C. H. w.
