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

DEATH AND DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD 581
commonly supposed to marry. A ghost is incapable
zi second death. Unless it takm up its residence in some
or unless it is for some reason specially feared, it appears
rather rapidly in memory, though it is always regarded
vaguely in Iambi with all the thousands of other
forgotten ghosts.
' On one point no explanation is offered. As we have seen,
every man of Lambumbu at some time during his life gives a pig
to his maternal uncle for ivi nambung, that is to ensure that
his soul or spirit shall at death return to his maternal uncle's
village, that is to his mother's clansfolk. For a woman her
husband gives a pig at her death to a man representing her
-maternal uncle for the same purpose, and this is done, too, ior a
rhan if through some mishap he has not paid the pig earlier.
‘Since on its departure from the body the spirit is dismissed to
Iambi, what is meant by its return to its mother's or maternal
uncle’s village? It is conceivable that it is believed to pass
hhrough this village on its way to Iambi, or it may be that the
expression is in some sense a metaphorical one. Unfortunately
we cannot tell for certain what the true signiï¬Åcance of iui namlnmg
may be, and can only note the existence of the custom as further
evidence of the close bonds which are recognized in this patri-
lineal community between an individual and his (or her) mother's
kindred.
DEATH AND Tl-IE DISPOSAL on TH!-I DEA!) AMONG rm: Big Nambas
The myth which explains how death came into the world is,
among the Big Nambas, quite different from that found either
in Mewun or in Lagalag. In the olden days, it is said, people
did not die, but when they grew old they changed their skins
and were thus rejuvenated. There was at this time an old
Woman who was looking after her grandson. While he was
playing beside a stream she retired and sloughed her old skin,
S0 that she reappeared as a young woman. The child, seeing
the young stranger, on her return, began to cry and call for his
grandmother. She tried to pacify him, assuring him that she
really was his grandmother, but that she had become young
again. But the child only howled the more, and ï¬Ånally the
woman, in a huff, said: "Very well, if you want your old