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

534 MALEKULA
an important standing in the Nalawan. There is no record of
all the grades in the Nalawan and Nimangki to which Apwil
Naandu belonged, so that it is not possible to tell whether all
of them were represented at his funeral, but it is noticeable that
even such low Nalawan ranks as Nisamp and Nimbatin N aamel
were introduced, although only the higher ones of the Nimangki,
such as Nam Wenoamg are mentioned, It is very clear that in
these funeral rites the Nalawan plays a much greater part than
the Nimlmgki. It is only in determining the decoration of the
corpse and effigy, in the beating of certain gong-rhythms, and in
the planting of certain distinctive shrubs in the dancing ground
that the grades of the Nimangki are important. This supports
the conclusion already arrived at that the Nimangki is a more
secular association than the Nalawan.
Rough and fragmentary accounts of two other funerals add
little to what has already been recorded of the rites of disposing
of the dead in Seniang. Since the deceased were not members
of Nimmzgki Navel Number, as was Apwil Naandu, they were
not painted white, but red. The other ornaments on the corpse
are always primarily those which the dead man purchased at his
last rise in Nimangki rank. Other scattered notes also give the
information that if a man had entered Nalau/an Nimbatin N/mmel,
then on the fourth day after his death, men would plant bananas,
crotons, and mbu/ingmbwingamb ‘ around the gongs; and that
it was only ii he were a man of Lehngz/a'al that a fence would be
erected also, as it was in the funeral of Apwil Naandu. Further,
it is stated that on the ninth day, alter the puddings have been
made, the temes naainggol are blown in the amel, and, if the
deceased belongs to Lelengvahl, in the enclosed space around
the gongs.
To-day the influence of Europeans has led, in some cases,
to a modiï¬Åcation of the old customs, as is shown in the following
account of the funeral of Ailiil of Vanbiil, of which Deacon was
himself a witness. He writes as follows :— -
" I was~working with a native close to the amel of Vanbiil,
when my informant suddenly left me. I looked up, surprised,
and saw everyone moving towards the door of Ailiil’s house.
I asked one man as he passed by the meaning of this and he
explained that Ailiil was just going to die. Everyone disappeared
inside, and Iwas left to myself in a deserted village. It was about
I Two other shnibs axevmentioned, but their names are not legihle.—C. 1-r. w.