[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
582 MALEKULA grandmother back, you shall have her. But she will die." SQ she went away again, recovered her old skin, donned it, and returned. The child welcomed his old grandmother joyously, but she answered him sourly, saying that now because he had been so cantankerous she would never again be able to change her skin but would die. Ever since then human beings have lost the power of rejuvenation and have died,‘ The Disposal of the Dead Among the Big Numbas, as elsewhere in Malekula, the status of the deceased affects the manner of the disposal of the body. A man who is not a chief and all women are buried inside the house, together with a few simple grave-goods, such as a man's club. The corpse is laid on its right side, but nothing further is recorded of its orientation. There are three different accounts of the treatment which a chiefs body receives, and from the evidence available it is not possible to determine which was thc last written and there- fore more accurate one. Deacon himself was able to spend only a very short time in the Big Narnbas country, and was to an great extent dependent for his information upon boys who had come thence. The most complete account’ states that burial was practised for chiefs as well as for commoners, but with variations in the method. Frequently if a chief felt himself to be dying, he would order his men to strangle him. After death the body is rubbed with coco-nut oil and the face painted black with charcoal; a ï¬Åne girdle (uivelil) is wound round the bark belt, a new red nambas is put on, and feathers are stuck in the hair.‘ The legs are then bound up to the thighs, and the lower arms to the upper arms, with the hands crossed on the chest. The grave is a pit, dug either inside the dead man's house or in the I This talc is 1 version oi A myth about l.l’l6 origin 0! dEli.ll which ii found in several other pm; of Melanesia. It has been recorded lrom sn in the Solomons (cqrli-iiigmii, 1891, p. 260); Torres Islands (ihid., p. 265) ; omb-it [ibid., pp. 283-4) ; and Mata (ibid, p. 265); and closely similar myths are mpamri from Raga (ibid., pp. 2115:!) mil Eddystone Island (1-mm, _].R.A.I., vol, Iii, p. $01.4, H. w. = This ii taken ii-om B, manuscript, presumably wvicceu up from some field- wick have not survived, which was sent by Demcmx to Dr. Hadrian,- ' Probably these are the hawks’ feathers which are the token of high Ninlnnghi rank, as for instance hawks’ feathers are in Scniang and Lmmbumbu. —C. H.
