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554 MALEKULA
but they are not bad.â€ù Women were said to go to Lernbwil
if they had a brother, to Ma/a if they had not. It was uncertain
whether they ever went to Embru or Lenarnap ; nor could the
man say what people did go to Embru. This information was
acquired from a heathen called Tivlus through the medium of a
native school-teacher, and before it was given informant and
interpreter entered into a lively discussion. Layard (pp. 209-Io)
points out that clearly the three most important places for the
dead are Embru (Wies), Lembwil, and Ma-a, and that Lenamap
was only mentioned as an afterthought and may possibly be a
development due to missionary influence. He suggests, too, the
possibility of Lernbwil and Ma-a being different regions occupied
after passing through Embru.
According to Deacon, the orthodox home of the dead for
the people of Seniang is Wies, which is also called Embw,‘ although
other beliefs are also held. At the boundary between Seniang
and Mewun there lies in the sea a rock called Lernbwil Song.
The Land of the Dead is situated vaguely in the parkland on
the mainland to the back of this rock, and apparently, according
to some people, it is conceived as being a short distance under-
ground. When any one of Seniang dies, the ghost after ï¬Ånally
leaving its old home, travels northwards until it comes to the
channel, called Niew, which leads to t_he lagoon. This it must
cross, just as a living person travelling in the same direction
would have to do, but whereas to a live man it is some thirty
to forty feet wide, and must be traversed by canoe, to the ghost
it seems but a ribbon of a rivulet over which it steps with ease.
As the ghost passes on its way, the landscape, though it is the
same as that which it knew when alive, appears subtly changed ;
the hills and valleys are distorted as in a dream. After crossing
Niew, the ghost sees in the distance the rock Lembwil Song, and
sitting in front of it is a female ghost Terne_s Savsap. Before
her, traced in the sand, is a geometrical ï¬Ågure called Nahal (the
Path) ‘ (see Fig. 37a). The route along which the ghost must go
lies between the two halves of the ï¬Ågure. As the ghost approaches,
1 Embw and Embm are clearly the same word: Deacon and Layard are
therefore so far in agreement.—C. H. W.
* An account of the remarkable geometrical drawings in the sand which
Deacon discovered in Malekula and Ambrym will, it is hoped, be published
very shortly in the ]0It71lEl0_/‘HIERdylllA9'li)lr0f0l0§iCl1lI%$Iih4iB. Consideration
of cost and space prevent them from being included in this volume.-C. H. W.
,.