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

THE DISTRIBUTION OF CULTURES 709
Rivers (19r4, ii, 265) suggests, however, that rites are or were
practised in the Tamate societies which have to do with Zl skull
cult. Further, in Mota the bull-roarcr is used to drive away
the ghost and in Merlav for making a mouming sound, though
neither here, nor in any other of the Banks Islands where it is
used as a toy, does any sanctity attach to it.‘ It is only when we
go north to Florida in the Solomon group that we meet once more
with the bull-roarer as a sacred instrument, and in this island,
signiï¬Åcantly enough, it is connected with the M atambala society,
which in its turn is intimately connected with the vunutha, the
burial places of great men whose skulls are preserved.‘ It is not
possible to enter here into a full analysis of the relations between
funeral rites, secret societies, bull-roarers, etc., but enough has
been said to show that the exhumation of the skull and the
treatment of the body by a slow ï¬Åre are intimately connected
with secret societies and the bull»roarcr, with chiefs and with
stone-slabs, or some other variety of stone-work. They are,
furthermore, particularly noticeable in the Banks Islands and
Malekula, whereas in_ Omba and Maewo they are absent. In
Santo, also, exhumation and preservation of the skull are
apparently not practised. Codrington held that the Banks Islands
were " undoubtedly the chief seat of these societies â€ù ; ‘ there is
evidence enough to show that they are highly developed in
Miilekula ; in Maewo and Omba their importance and elaboration
are, judging from what evidence we have, almost negligible, while
about their importance in Santo, there are still too few data to
allow us to make an estimate. Images of tree-fern and other
woods occur in the Banks Islands, Ambrym,‘ Malekula, and Epi
in connection with the graded society, but these, too, are absent
from Santo, On-iba, Maewo, and north Raga.
Taking all this into consideration, it seems evident that a
culture, distinct from any oi the three which we have already
distinguished, must have spread throughout the area of the
Northern and North—Central New Hebrides—-a culture character-
ized hy secret societies of the Tam!/Its, Nalau/an, and Nzvinbur
might be removed ï¬Ånd the 1nmba1mn»p made. Thii ‘being so, it has seemed better
to leave the qiimisii open as to WleLher the natives who expose the Corpses with
B ï¬Åre near-by do E0 ii» preserve them or to hasten their decomposition, and
speak of such BXPOSHIB non-committally I-LS " imoiieiit by ï¬Åre 1-i. w.
I coaiingtoii, isei, pi ass. 1 n>ia.. pp» 94 5., gs.
= Codringtvfl, 1ss1,;>. 7s. ' ma, pp. 174-5.
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