The Big Feast
This is the greatest and most important social function of a Mafulu
community of villages. I was unable to get any information as to its
real intent and origin, but a clue to this may, I think, be found in
the formal cutting down of the grave platform of a chief, the dipping
of chiefs' bones in the blood of the slain pigs, and the touching of
other chiefs' bones with the bones so dipped, which constitute such
important features of the function, and which perhaps point to an
idea of in some way finally propitiating or driving away or "laying"
the ghosts of the chiefs whose bones are the subject of the ceremony.
The feast, though only to be solemnised in one village, is organised
and given by the whole community of villages. There is no (now)
known matter or event with reference to which it is held. It is
decided upon and arranged and prepared for long beforehand, say a
year or two, and feasts will only be held in one village at intervals
of perhaps fifteen or twenty years. The decision to hold a feast is
arrived at by the chiefs of the clans of the community which proposes
to give it. The village at which the feast is to be held will not
necessarily be the largest one of the community, or one in which is
a then existing chiefs _emone_. The guests to be invited to it will
be the people of some other (only one other) community, and at the
outset it will be ascertained more or less informally whether or not
they will be willing to accept the invitation.
When the feast has been resolved upon, the preparations for it
begin immediately, that is a year or two before the date on which it
is to be held. Large quantities will be required of yam, taro and
sugar-cane, and of a special form of banana (not ripening on the
trees, and requiring to be cooked); also of the large fruit of the
_ine_, a giant species of Pandanus (see Plate 80--the figure seated
on the ground near to the base of the tree gives an idea of the size
of the latter and of the fruit head which is hanging from it), which
is cultivated in the bush, and the fruit heads of which are oval or
nearly round, and have a transverse diameter of about 18 inches; and
of another fruit, called by the natives _malage_, which grows wild,
chiefly by streams, and is also cultivated, and the fruit of which
was described to me as being rather like an apple, almost round,
green in colour, and 4 or 5 inches in diameter. [66] And above all
things will be wanted an enormous number of village pigs (not wild
pigs); and sweet potatoes must be plentiful for the feeding of these
pigs. And finally they will need plenty of native tobacco for their
guests. In view of these requirements it is obvious that a year or two
is by no means an excessive period for the preparations for the feast.
The existing yam and taro gardens, intended for community consumption
alone, will be quite insufficient for the purpose, and fresh bush
land is at once cleared, and new gardens are made and planted,
the products of these new gardens being allocated specially for the
feast, and not used for any other purpose. There is also an extensive
planting of sugar-cane, probably in old potato gardens. For bananas
there will probably be no great need of preparation, as they are
grown plentifully, and there is no specific appropriation of these;
but the sufficiency of the supply of the tobacco for the visitors,
and of the sweet potatoes for the pigs, has to be seen to, also
that of the _ine_ Pandanus trees, the fruit of which has often to be
procured from elsewhere, and of the trees. And finally the village
pigs must be bred and fattened, for which latter purpose it is a
common practice to send young pigs to people in other communities;
and these people will be invited to the big feast, and will have pig
given to them, though not members of the invited community; but never
in any case will any of them have a part of a pig which he himself
has fattened. The cultivated vegetable foods and the pigs are not
provided on a communistic basis, but are supplied by the individual
members of the community, each household of which is expected to
do its duty in this respect; and no person who or whose family has
not provided at least one pig (some of them provide more than one)
will be allowed to take part in the preliminary feast and subsequent
dancing, to be mentioned below.
The bringing in and storing of the _ine_ and _malage_ fruits commence
at an early stage. The _ine_ fruits are collected when quite ripe;
they split the large fruit heads up into two or more parts, put these
into baskets roughly made of cane (at least half a fruit head in
each basket), and place these baskets in the _avale_ or ceiling of
the _emone_, where the fruits get dried and smoked by the heat and
smoke of the fire constantly burning beneath. If, as is sometimes
the case, the _emone_ has no _avale_ one is constructed specially
for the purpose. The fruits are left there until required; in fact,
if taken away from the smoke, they would go bad. Sometimes, instead of
putting portions of the fruit heads into baskets, they take out from
them the almond-shaped seeds, which are the portions to be eaten,
string these together, each seed being tied round and not pierced,
and hang them to the roof of the _emone_ above the _avale_. The fruits
of the _malage_ are gathered and put into holes or side streams by a
river, and there left for from seven to ten months, until the pulp,
which is very poisonous, is all rotted away, a terrible smell being
emitted during the process; they then take the pips or seeds, the
insides of which, after the surrounding shells have been cracked,
are the edible parts, and place these in baskets made out of the
almost amplexicaul bases of the leaves of a species of palm tree,
and so store them also on the _avale_ of the _emone_. [67]
Large preparations of a structural and repairing nature are also
required in the village where the feast is to be held. The _emone_,
the true chiefs _emone_, of the village is repaired or pulled down
and entirely rebuilt; or, if that village does not possess such an
_emone_, one is erected in it. In point of fact the usual practice is,
I was informed, to build a new _emone_, the occasion of an intended
feast being the usually recognised time for the doing of this. [68]
The houses of the village are put into repair. The people of the other
villages of the same community build houses for themselves in the feast
village, so that on the occasion of the feast all the members of the
community (the hosts) will be living in that village. View platforms,
from which the dancing can be watched, are built by all the people of
the community. These are built between the houses where possible, or
at all events so as to obstruct the view from the houses as little as
possible. They are built on upright poles, and are generally between
12 and 20 feet high, each platform having a roof, which will probably
be somewhat similar to the roofs of the houses. Sometimes there are
two platforms under one roof, but this is not usual. Sometimes the
platforms, instead of being on posts, are in trees, being, however,
roofed like the others. Two or more houses may join in making one
platform for themselves and their friends. All the above works are
put in hand at an early stage.
The following are done later, perhaps not till after the sending out
of the formal invitation (see below), but they may conveniently be
dealt with here. The people erect near to, but outside, the village in
which the feast is to be held one or more sheds for the accommodation
of the guests, the number of sheds depending upon the requirements of
the case. These are merely gable and ridge-shaped roofs, which descend
on each side down to the ground, or very close to it, being supported
by posts, and there being no flooring. They are called _olor' eme_,
which means dancers' houses. Posts about 20 or 25 feet high and 12
inches or nearly so in diameter are erected in various places in the
village enclosure, and each of these posts is surrounded with three,
four, or five upright bamboo stems, which are bound to the post so as
together to make a composite post of which the big one is the strong
supporting centre. The leaf branches of these bamboos, starting out
from the nodes of the stems, are cut off 3 or 4 inches from their
bases, thus leaving small pegs or hooks to which vegetables, etc.,
can be afterwards hung; and in the case of each post one only of its
surrounding bamboos has the top branches and leaves left on. Each
household is responsible for the erection of one post. I may here say
in advance that upon these post clusters will be hung successively,
yams and taro in the upper parts, human skulls and bones lower down,
and croton leaves by way of decoration at the bottom. The sugar-cane
and banana and _ine_ and _malage_ are dealt with in another way. There
is a further erection of thin poles, which will be mentioned in its
proper place.
About six months before the anticipated date of the big feast
there is a preliminary festivity, which is regarded as a sort of
intimation that the long-intended feast is shortly to take place. To
this festivity people of villages of any neighbouring communities,
say within an hour or two's walk, are invited. There is no dancing,
but there is a distribution among the guests of a portion of each of
the vegetables and fruits which will be consumed at the feast, and a
village pig is killed and cut up, and its parts are also distributed
among the guests, who then return home.
After this preliminary festivity dancing begins in the village
in which the feast is to be held and in the other villages of the
same community, and this dancing goes on, subject to weather, every
day until the evening prior to the day upon which the feast takes
place. The men dance in the villages, beginning at about sundown, and
going on through the evening, and perhaps throughout the night. Only
men who or whose families have provided at least one pig for the feast
are allowed to join in the dancing. Bachelors join in the dancing,
subject to the above condition. The women dance outside their villages,
and, as regards them, there is no pig qualification.
About a month before the date on which the feast is proposed to be
held, a formal invitation is sent out to the community which is to be
invited to it, and who, as above stated, have already been approached
informally in the matter. For this purpose a number, perhaps ten,
twenty, or thirty, of the men of the community giving the feast start
off, taking with them several bunches of croton leaves--one bunch
for each village of the invited community. These men, if the invited
community be some distance off, only carry the croton leaves as far
as some neighbouring community, probably about one day's journey off,
where they stay the night, and then return. During their progress,
and particularly as they arrive at their destination, they are all
singing. Then the men of this neighbouring community carry the croton
leaves a stage further; and so on till they reach their ultimate
destination. This may involve two or three sets of messengers, but
occasionally one or two of the original messengers may go the whole
way. These croton leaves are delivered to the chiefs of the several
clans of the invited community, and they are tied to the front central
posts of the village _emone_, the true _emone_ of the chiefs village,
and, as regards other villages, the _emone_ of the sub-chiefs. [69]
The exact date of the feast depends upon the guests, who may come in
a month after receiving the croton leaves, or may be later; and the
community giving the feast do not know on what date their guests will
arrive until news comes that they are actually on their way, though
in the meantime messengers will be passing backwards and forwards
and native wireless telegraphy (shouting from ridge to ridge) will
be employed.
As soon as the formal invitation has been sent the people of the
community giving the feast begin to bring in the yams from the gardens,
which they do day by day, singing as they do so; and these yams are
stored away in the houses as they are brought in. When the yams have
all been collected, they are brought out and spread in one, two,
or three long lines along the centre of the village open space. The
owner of each post knows which are his own yams, and they will go to
his post. When the yams are laid out on the ground, the chiefs inspect
them, and select the best ones, which are to be given to the chiefs
of the community invited to the dance. To these selected yams they
tie croton leaves as distinguishing marks. Then each man stands by
his own yams, and has a boy standing by his own post; each man picks
up his best yams, and whilst holding these they all (only the men with
the yams) begin to sing. The moment the song is over, each man rushes
with his selected best yam to his post, and hands the yam to the boy,
who climbs up the post, and hangs up the yam. After this they hang
the rest of the yams, each man running with them to the post, and
giving them to the boy, who climbs up and hangs the yam whilst the man
runs back for another, the performance being all in apparent disorder
and there being no singing. Some of the best-shaped yams are hung to
little cross-sticks about 3 or 4 feet long, which the boys then and
there attach to those bamboo stems which have their top branches and
leaves left upon them, the sticks being attached just below these
branches. These selected yams will include those with the croton
leaves, which are intended for chiefs. Of the rest the better yams
are hung up higher on the posts, and the poorer ones lower down. The
lowest of them will probably be 5 or 6 feet from the ground.
After hanging the yams, the next step is to erect in the ground all
round the village enclosure and in front of the houses a number of
tall young slender straight-stemmed tree poles, with the top branches
and leaves only left upon them. These poles are connected with one
another by long stems, fixed horizontally to them at a height of 7
or 8 feet from the ground, the stems thus forming a sort of long line
or girdle encircling the village enclosure.
The men then go to their gardens and bring in the sugar-canes,
singing as they do so, and these they hang to the horizontal stems,
but without ceremony. The sugar-canes are all in thick bundles, perhaps
12 or 18 inches thick, and these bundles are hung horizontally end
to end immediately under the line of stems, so as also to make a
continuous encircling line.
Next they bring in the bananas, again singing, and these they hang up
on the tall, slender tree poles, and on the platforms of the houses,
and under the view platforms, but without ceremony.
Lastly, again singing, they bring in the taro, and hang these up,
mixed with the yams (not below them) on the posts, again without
ceremony. The hanging up of the taro is left to the last, and, in
fact, is not done till it is known that the guests are on their way,
as the taro would be spoilt by bad weather.
In hanging the yam and the taro the people all work
simultaneously--that is, they are all hanging yams at the same time and
all hanging taro at the same time. But as regards the sugar cane and
banana each man works in his own time without waiting for, or being
waited for by, the others. Women may help the men in all these things,
except the ceremonious hanging up of the yams.
They do not, however, hang all the yam, sugar-cane, banana and taro,
some of each being kept back in the houses for a purpose which will
appear hereafter.
The _ine_ and _malage_ fruits are not hung up at all, but are kept
in the _avale_ of the village _emone_ until the day of the actual
feast, when the various vegetables and fruits are, as will be seen,
put in heaps for distribution among the guests.
They then further decorate the posts with human skulls and bones,
which are hung round in circles below the yams and taro, but not
reaching to the ground. These are the skulls and bones of chiefs and
members of their families and sub-chiefs and important personages
only of the community, and the bones used are only the larger bones
of the arms and legs; skulls will, so far as possible, be used for
the purpose in preference to the other bones. These skulls and bones
are taken from wherever they may then happen to be; some of them will
be in burial boxes on trees, [70] some may be in graves underground,
and some may be hung up in the village _emone_; though it may here
be mentioned that those underground and in the _emone_ are not,
as I shall show later, in their original places of sepulture.
Finally croton leaves, tied in sheaves, are arranged round the posts
below the skulls and bones, so as to decorate the posts down to
the ground.
One other specially important matter must here be mentioned. There
will probably be in or by the edge of the village enclosure a high
box-shaped wooden burial platform, [71] supported on poles, and
containing the skull and all the bones of a chief, these platforms
and a special sort of tree being, as will be explained later on, the
only places where they and their families and important personages
are originally buried. If so, the people add to the bones on this
platform such of the other skulls and special arm and leg bones,
collected as above mentioned, as are not required for decorating the
posts. If, as is most improbable, there is no such burial platform,
then they erect one, and upon it place all the available skulls and
special bones not required for the posts.
These various preparations bring us to the evening before the day
of the feast, upon which evening the women, married and unmarried,
of the community, whose families have supplied pigs for the feast,
dance together in full dancing decorations in the village enclosure,
beginning at about sundown, and, if weather permits, dancing all
through the night. There is no ceremony connected with this dancing.
The next day is the feast day. The guests are in the special guest
houses outside the village, where they are dressing for the dance. They
have probably arrived the day before, in which case they may have
come into the village to watch the women dancing in the evening;
but they are not regarded as having formally arrived. These guests
include married and unmarried men, women and children, nobody of the
invited community being left behind, except old men and women who
cannot walk. The women have brought with them their carrying bags,
in which they carry all their men's and their own goods (_e.g._,
knives, feathers, ornaments, etc.), including not only the things
used for the ceremony, but all their other portable property, which
they do not wish to expose to risk of theft by leaving at home.
They have also brought special ornamental bags to be used in the
dance as mentioned below.
The people of the village in the meantime erect one, two, or three
(generally three) trees in a group in the very centre of the village
enclosure.
And now come the successive ceremonies of the feast, in which both
married and unmarried men and women take part; in describing these
ceremonies I will call the people of the community giving the feast
the "hosts," and the visitors attending it the "guests."
First: All or nearly all the men hosts go in a body out of the
village to the guests' houses, singing as they go. They are all
fully ornamented for a feast, but do not wear their special dancing
ornaments, and they do not carry their spears, or as a rule any other
weapons. Each chiefs ornaments include a bunch of black cassowary
feathers tied round his head behind, and falling down over his
shoulders, this being his distinctive ornament; but otherwise his
ornaments do not differ from those of the rest, except probably as
regards quantity and quality. The object of this visit is to ascertain
if the guests are ready, and if they are not ready the men hosts
wait until they are so. Then the men hosts return to the village,
singing as before, and all the guests, men and women, follow them; but
they do not sing, and they do not enter the village. The men hosts,
on returning, retire to their houses and the view platforms, where
also are the women hosts, thus leaving the village enclosure empty.
Second: All the women guests, except two, then enter the village. They
are fully ornamented for the feast, but do not wear their special
dancing ornaments. They all have large carrying bags on their backs,
not the common ones of everyday use, but the ornamental ones; and in
these they carry and show off all their own and their husbands' riches
other than what they respectively are actually wearing. They enter
at one end of the village enclosure (I will hereafter call this the
"entrance end") by the side of the end _emone_ of the village (this
may be the chiefs true _emone_ or it may be the secondary _emone_),
and walk in single file along one side of the village enclosure,
and half of them walk round the other end (which I will call the
"far end") in front of the _emone_ there (which also will be either
the true one or the other one), and back again along the other side,
until there are two rows of them, _vis-à-vis_ at opposite sides of
the enclosure, none of them remaining at the far end in front of the
_emone_ there. If they are very numerous, there may be lines on both
sides of the enclosure, stretching from end to end; whereas if they
are few only, they would be in facing lines at the far end only of
the enclosure. This is all done silently.
Third: All the women hosts, fully ornamented for a feast, but without
special dancing ornaments, then enter the enclosure at the entrance
end, and congregate at the far end of it, in front of the far _emone_
and between the two facing lines of women guests, and facing towards
the centre of the enclosure. The group of them stretches as far
forward towards the centre of the enclosure as their number allows;
but it will never extend beyond the special trees, which have been
last erected in the centre. This also is done in silence.
Fourth: The two women guests excluded from the general entry now
come in. They are presumably the wives of chiefs. They are also
decorated for the feast, but without full dancing ornaments. Each
of them, however, holds in her mouth something intended to give her
a terrible appearance, probably two pairs of pigs' tusks, one pair
curling, crescent-like, upwards, and the other pair similarly curling
downwards, or a piece of cloth; but this is only carried by her for
this particular scene of the performance, and not afterwards. Each of
them also carries two spears, one in each hand. These two women rush
into the village enclosure, one entering at each side of the _emone_
at the entrance end. They run along the two sides of the enclosure,
one at each side, in front of the lines of women guests already there
(between them and the central group of host women), brandishing
their spears as they do so, but in silence. When they reach the far
end of the enclosure they meet each other in front of the _emone_
there; and then, if that happens to be the true (chief's) _emone_,
they brandish their spears in a hostile manner at the building,
the spears sometimes even striking it, though they do not leave the
women's hands, and there is probably a little pause or halt in their
running for the purpose of this attack. They then pass each other,
and return as they had come, still brandishing their spears, but
each on the opposite side, until they are both at the entrance end of
the enclosure. If the _emone_ at this end is the true _emone_, then
the attack is made upon it, instead of upon the other one. They then
generally again pass each other, and go round the enclosure a second
time, and again attack the _emone_ exactly as before. During the first
part of this performance the host women congregated in the far end of
the enclosure are all dancing a sort of non-progressive goose step,
there being, however, no singing. But, when the two guest women on
the return journey of their second circuit reach the front row of
the host women, the latter advance in a body silently dancing (but
not travelling so fast as the two guest women) down the enclosure,
and so following the two guest women, until they are all congregated
at the entrance end of the enclosure. The positions of the _dramatis
personæ_ up to and including the stage of proceedings lastly described
will be better understood by reference to Fig. 7 and its accompanying
notes. At the end of this stage the lines of guest women are still
as shown; but the two special guest women and all the host women are
at the entrance end of the enclosure.
Fifth: Such of the guest men as are not going to join in the real
ultimate dance (see heading 9) enter the village at the entrance end,
they also being fully ornamented, but not wearing their special
dancing ornaments. They carry their spears, and perhaps in their
other hands their clubs or adzes. Any chiefs who may be among them
wear their black cassowary feather ornaments, like those of the host
chiefs. They all advance along the enclosure, jumping and dancing and
brandishing their spears, but not singing; and in front of them go all
the host women, dancing as before, also in silence. This double body of
people, host women in front, and guest men behind, advance _en masse_
along the village enclosure. When, in doing this, the guest men reach
the three last-erected special trees in the middle of the enclosure,
they attack the trees with their spears, never letting the spears leave
their hands, and with kicks, and thus try to knock the trees down. If
they succeed in doing so, then this part of the performance is at an
end, and these guest men disperse and spread about at both sides and
ends of the village; but the host and guest women return from wherever
they are to the entrance end. If the guest men's first attack on the
trees is not successful, they pass them, and continue their advance,
as before, to the far end of the enclosure and return back again in
the other direction, the host women still dancing in front of them;
and on this return journey they repeat their attack on the trees. If
again unsuccessful, they go on to their starting point, and go a second
time through the same performance as before, going up the enclosure,
and, if necessary, down again; and, if still unsuccessful, they will
probably try a third time, the host women always dancing in front of
them as before. The whole of this is one continuous movement, going on
till the trees are down. If after the third double attempt the guest
men have still been unsuccessful, they relinquish their efforts; and in
that case the pig-killer of the hosts' village (as to whom see below)
steps forward, and cuts down the trees with his adze. When the trees
are down, the performance is at an end, the guest men retire, and
the host and guest women return to the entrance end, as above stated.
Sixth: Such of the chiefs of the guests as do not intend to join in the
real ultimate dance (heading 9) then step forward into the enclosure at
the entrance end. Their number may be two or three or more. They wear
their full dancing ornaments, including their black cassowary feather
ornaments and the enormous feather erections on their heads, which
for chiefs are even larger and heavier than for other people. They
carry their drums, but not spears or clubs or adzes. The two special
guest women who have already been mentioned and two other guest women,
all with their full dancing ornaments, also come forward. A line is
formed with the chiefs in the middle and the four women at the two
ends. In front of this line are all the host women, still decorated as
before, but without special dancing ornaments. Then the whole group,
host women in front and the guest chiefs and their four attendant
guest women in a line behind, dance forward along the enclosure. In
doing this, they face the direction in which they are progressing,
and their progress is slow. This is done to the accompaniment of
the beating by the dancing chiefs of their drums, but there is no
singing. When the dancing party reach the far end of the enclosure,
they go back again in the same way; and so on again until the chiefs
(with the great weights they are carrying) are tired; then they
stop. But the men hosts thereupon politely press them to go on again,
giving them in fact a sort of complimentary encore, and this they
will probably do. After about half-an-hour from the commencement of
the dancing they finally stop. Then the chief of the clan in one of
whose villages the dance is held comes forward and removes the heavy
head-pieces from the dancing chiefs.
Seventh: An important ceremony now occurs. The chief of the clan cuts
away the supports of the burial platform already mentioned, whereupon
the platform falls to the ground, and the skulls and bones upon it
roll on the ground. These are picked up, and the skulls and big arm
and leg bones are put on one side. There is no singing or ceremony
in connection with this. The platform is not rebuilt; and what is
afterwards done with the skulls and bones will be seen hereafter.
Eighth: There is now a distribution among the chiefs and more important
male guests of the yam, taro, sugar-cane and bananas, which at the
time of the hanging up on the village posts were kept back and put
into the houses, and of tobacco. The chief of the clan, with help from
others, makes a number of heaps of these things in the centre of the
village enclosure, the number of heaps corresponding to the number of
recipients. Then, standing successively before each of these heaps,
he calls out in turn the names of the men who are to receive them,
chiefs being given the first priority, and specially important people
the next. Each man comes forward, usually bringing with him his
wife or some other woman with a bag, picks up his heap, and takes
it away. And so with all of them in turn, till all is finished. On
each heap there is usually, but not always, a portion of a village
pig, which has that morning been killed under the burial platform,
before it was cut down. The guests, men and women, then return to
the guest houses, where the women cook the food which has been given,
and it is eaten by the men and themselves.
Ninth: The real dance now takes place, beginning perhaps at 9 or
10 in the evening, and lasting the whole night, and perhaps till 10
o'clock the following morning. The dancing is done by some only of
the guest men, and none of their women, and none of the hosts, either
men or women, join in it. The dancers are all arrayed in full dancing
ornaments, including their heavy head feather erections, and chiefs
also wear their cassowary feathers; and they all carry their drums
and spears, and sometimes clubs or adzes. After the dance has begun,
the chief of the clan in whose village the dance occurs distributes,
with assistance, among the more important of these dancers, especially
chiefs, the skulls and bones which had been put on one side after
the cutting down of the burial platform, and probably some or all
of the skulls and bones which had been hung upon the big posts;
and the dancers receiving these skulls and bones wear them as
additional decoration upon their arms throughout the dance. Guest
chiefs dance with the others, but owing to the heavy weight of the
head ornaments they have to carry, they will be tired sooner than
the others. The dancing party enter the village at the entrance end,
walking backwards. Directly after they have entered the village they,
still having their backs to it, begin to beat their drums, after doing
which for a short time they turn round, and the dancing begins. The
dancers beat their drums whilst dancing, but neither they nor the
other people sing during the actual dancing. There are, however,
intervals in the dancing (not the mere rest intervals, such as they
have in Mekeo, and which they also have in Mafulu, but intervals which
are themselves an actual part of the dance), and during these intervals
the drums are not being beaten, and the dancers and the other people,
hosts, guests, men and women, all sing. I shall have something more
to say about dancing generally later on. At a subsequent stage the
skulls and bones with which the dancers have been decorated, including
those which had fallen from the burial platform, are all again hung
up among the other skulls and bones on the big posts.
Tenth: This is the stage at which occur various other ceremonies,
which, though themselves quite distinct from that of the big feast, and
performed, often several of them together, when there is no big feast,
are also, some or all of them, generally or always introduced into it,
as being a convenient occasion for them. The ceremonies in question
are those connected with the assumption of the perineal band, admission
to the _emone_ and the giving of the right to carry a drum and dance,
that of nose-piercing, and that on the devolution of chieftainship. The
nose-piercing ceremony has already been described. The others will
be dealt with later.
Eleventh: Next comes the general distribution among the guests of the
vegetables and fruits, including all those which have been hung up
and displayed, as above described, and the _ine_ fruit, prepared in
two ways, and _malage_ fruit. Every male guest who has joined in the
real dance is, speaking generally, entitled to have a share; though
sometimes, where there are two or three members of one family, shares
may be given to one or two of them only, instead of to each. The chiefs
of the community giving the feast work together in carrying out the
distribution. The various things are collected into a number of heaps
about the village, the number of heaps corresponding to the number
of portions to be distributed; and each heap contains something of
everything. Excluded from these heaps, however, are the _ine_ seeds
which have been put on strings and preserved separately, as before
explained. For these are erected stakes about 10 feet high, round
which the strings of seeds are twined. The number of these stakes
is less than the number of heaps, because they are only planted
near to the heaps which contain none of the _ine_ fruit prepared
the other way, so that each dancing guest gets some of this fruit,
done in either one way or the other. Then the chiefs of the hosts'
community stand round one of the heaps and shout wildly, calling upon
the recipient. This may be done by name, or it may in the case of a
chief be done by the name of a spot, say a mound or hollow, adjoining
the village from which he comes. Here, again, priority is given first
to chiefs, and next to important personages. The man so called upon
comes running forward with his wife or another woman, picks up his
vegetables and fruit, and runs back again with them. Then the chiefs
go on to another heap, and again afterwards to the others, one by one,
going through the same process in each case, until everything has been
distributed. Some of the women then go back to their own villages,
carrying with them a portion of the food which has been given to their
husbands, but leaving the rest with the latter. Sometimes some of the
guest men go home also. But anyone who is proposing to return to the
village of the feast must leave some of his food, or bring food on
his return, as no more will be given to him.
Twelfth: The next stage is the collection of the village pigs. This
may take some time, as many of them are running about in the bush,
and have to be caught; and some of them have been agisted out as above
mentioned, and have to be fetched. This may involve a delay of a week
or ten days, during which most or all of the guests remain, sleeping
in their guest houses at night, and perhaps roaming about among other
villages in the neighbourhood by day. During this interval there is
neither singing nor dancing.
Thirteenth: The village pigs are all brought in alive, and placed under
the houses of the village, each pig having its legs tied up and being
tied to the house. When all is ready, the chief of the clan announces
that the killing of the pigs will take place on the following morning.
Fourteenth: The next morning all the people, both hosts and guests,
are in the village to watch the pig-killing; and people from other
communities, who are not guests, and will not receive any pig, come
too. The pigs are brought out one by one, and killed by hitting them
on the head with clubs or adzes or anything else. This is not a chiefs
duty. There is a man who is the recognised pig-killer, and who, as
already stated, will probably be a man of some position, though not
either a chief or a sub-chief. Where there are many pigs, as at the
big feast, there will be a number of other men helping him. Each pig is
killed on the site of the burial platform which has been cut down. As
the pigs are killed, their bodies are carried away and placed on the
ground in a row, commencing at the end of the village enclosure, and
forming a central line along it; and it is usual also to place upon the
row of dead pigs a continuous line of long thin poles, laid end to end,
which are afterwards kept tied to the _emone_ as a record of the total
length of the line of pigs, and thus of the number of pigs killed. The
number of pigs killed is generally very large in proportion to the
size of the community giving the feast, much more so than is the case
in the villages of Mekeo and the coast. It may be anything from fifty
to over one hundred; in fact at a recent feast given by a community
of seven villages, having between them about a hundred houses, they
killed 135 pigs. Some chiefs of the hosts' community then take some
of the bones (not skulls) from the big posts, and dip them into the
mouths of the pigs, from which the blood is flowing. They have been
seen to dip one bone into several pigs. There does not appear to be
any method of selection of the bones to be dipped. They then touch
with the bones which have been so dipped the skulls and all the other
bones on the posts, which include the skulls and other special bones
of all the chiefs and members of their families and other prominent
people buried in and by the villages of the community since the last
previous big feast was held there. After this all the bones are again
hung up on the posts. I may say here in advance that, when the feast
is over, all the bones are removed from the posts; and, the ceremony
as regards those bones having been performed, they will never again
be the subject of ceremonial observance. They, or some of them, may
be hung up in the _emone_, but if so it is known that they are not
to be used again for ceremonial purposes; or they may be put in a
box in a tree, or hung up on a tree, not necessarily of the special
species used for burying; or they may be simply flung away anywhere
in the bush. Whilst the bodies of the slain pigs lie in a line, and
before the cutting up, it is the duty of each man who has had a pig
fed up for him to pay the man who has done so, the payment probably
being a string of dogs' teeth, or head feather ornaments. Next, the
hosts set to work to cut up the pigs. This is not done by a chief or
special person, nor is there any ceremony connected with it. Each pig
is cut into seven parts, namely, (1) the head, (2-5) the four legs,
(6) the bowels and internal parts, and (7) the back and sides. I was
told that each part of each pig is destined for a certain person, as
arranged beforehand. It follows that, if there are, say, 100 pigs,
there are 700 predestined pieces, which are known and remembered,
though there are no means of recording them. It is difficult to believe
the truth of this, but I was assured that it was correct. The pieces
of each pig are placed on banana leaves, by the side of the spot where
the body had lain, and all the pieces are distributed among the male
guests. Everybody who has given a pig knows the length of each part
of it, though he could not express it in numerals. Each male guest
has a piece given to him, which, if the feast be a return feast,
will correspond in some way, which I could not understand, with what
he had himself provided at the previous feast. But dancers receive
larger and better portions than do mere singers. People who have fed
up pigs for members of the hosts' community also receive portions. In
the distribution of pig each man is called in turn as before, and in
the same order of priority, and runs up and gets his piece of pig, and
runs back with it; but in this case he is not accompanied by a woman.
Fifteenth: The feast is now over, and all the guests return to their
homes, taking away with them everything that has been given to them.
Sixteenth: The village has, however, to undergo a process which I may
perhaps call purification. As soon as possible after the guests have
gone, the men of the community go off into the bush and capture wild
pigs, for which purpose they may have to hunt for three or four days,
or even for a week or more. They must have at least one pig, and they
generally have two or more, even up to six. When caught, the pigs
are brought alive into the village, and are killed upon the site of
the cut-down burial platform, this being done by the pig-killer. The
pigs are then cut up and eaten by the members of the villages of the
community, those of the village itself eating their portions there,
and those of the other villages taking their portions away and eating
them in their own villages. Except as regards the killing of the pigs
on the site of the grave, the whole performance appears to be quite
informal. After the eating of the pigs, perhaps on the same day,
or if, as is probable, the feast lasts until late in the evening,
then on the next day, the women of the village clear away the filthy
mess of blood and garbage by which the village enclosure is filled,
and sweep the enclosure from end to end with branches of trees. Then
the bulk of the villagers leave the village and go off into the
gardens and the bush for a period of about six months. The feast
has denuded the village of food, including even sweet potatoes,
to which they have had no time to attend during the period before
the feast, and which have been used up in the feeding of the village
pigs required for it. New gardens are needed, and therefore new bush
has to be cut down, and the land must be cleared and planted with
various things, and especially with sweet potato. For this purpose
it is requisite or usual for them to build temporary houses on the
scene of their labours, in which the people live. The old people,
however, remain in the village, as do also some of the younger ones,
who have to tend the gardens close to it. At the end of the period
they all return, and village life goes on as usual. What the idea in
the native mind may be concerning what I have called the purification
of the village is a matter upon which I was unable to find any clue,
beyond what may be suspected from the actual facts of the proceeding;
but I think it probably has a superstitious origin. Although in
theory all the village pigs have been killed and given to the guests
at the big feast, there are always some left wandering in the bush,
which have not been caught. These pigs are, however, never used in the
purification ceremony, in which they always kill wild pigs only. It has
been suggested to me that a reason for this may be that, if they killed
village pigs, they would thereby advertise the fact that they had not
killed and distributed all their village pigs at the big feast; but
this hardly seems to be a satisfactory explanation. It clearly falls
to the ground as regards present intent if, as I was told, there always
is an unkilled residue of village pigs after a big feast. The practice
of killing wild pigs only would seem to associate itself with the fact
that pigs killed at this ceremony are eaten in the village itself,
for there seems to be no doubt that among the Mafulu people village
pigs are never eaten in their own village on ceremonial occasions;
and indeed it seems doubtful whether they are ever eaten there at all.
In fact, it appears to be a general custom in connection with all
ceremonial feasts to which outside guests are invited, to kill village
pigs only at the feast, and for these to be given to the guests to be
eaten by them in their own villages, and afterwards to have a second
feast, to which outside guests are not invited, and at which wild pigs
are killed, and eaten by the villagers themselves within the village.
The pig-killing is generally, and perhaps always, done in the morning.
It is thought by the Mafulu Fathers of the Mission as regards the
subsequent partial desertion of the village that, although it is only
partial, and although there is a practical reason for it, it is based
upon superstition, and is regarded by the people as being a formal
leaving of the village, pending its complete purification.
Plates 67 to 70 are reproductions of four photographs which Father
Clauser was good enough to give me, the two former ones having been
taken at the big feast held in the village of Amalala in the year 1909
and the two latter prior to and at a big feast held in the village
of Seluku.
I have thought it better to avoid the insertion of frequent, and
perhaps somewhat confusing, references to these plates in the body of
my notes upon the feast, and to take the plates separately, drawing
attention to what appear to be points of interest in them.
Plate 67 represents the scene at Amalala immediately prior to or
during the general distribution of vegetables and fruits (_ante_
heading 11). A comparison of this scene with the village in its normal
condition, as shown in Plates 56 and 57, gives some idea of the very
extensive and elaborate preparations which are made for the feast. On
the right hand side are seen some view platforms, and beyond them on
the same side is a normal house. Here and there are the big posts
surrounded with bamboo stems (notice these posts denuded of their
bamboo appendages still remaining in the village enclosure as shown
in Plates 56 and 57). Some of the vegetables are seen still hanging
upon these post clusters, and near the base of two of them are seen
the sheaves of croton leaves. There are apparently no skulls and bones
upon the posts seen in the plate, but possibly the re-hanging of these
had not been attended to when the photo was taken, or perhaps they had
been suspended to other posts not shown in the photograph. Upon the
ground are the heaps of vegetables, and close to some of these are the
stakes round which are twined strings of seeds of the _ine_ Pandanus.
Plate 68 is a photograph taken after the subsequent pig-killing, and
shows the pigs' bodies lying in a row along the centre of the village
enclosure, with the measuring line of poles placed above them. It
will be noticed that the elaborate view platforms have been cleared
away, but that the bamboo stems have not yet been removed from their
central posts.
Plate 69 represents a scene at Seluku prior to a big feast then about
to be held. The view platforms have not yet been erected. But the post
clusters have been erected, and the yams and croton leaves have been
hung upon them. In the centre of the village enclosure is the chief's
grave platform, which will be cut down during the festivities in the
way above described.
The bones of the chief are in the box-like receptacle at the top of
the structure, and the receptacle rather further down (underneath
the other one) contains the bones of a chief's child.
Plate 70 shows five men at the Seluku feast with full dancing
ornaments, including the great feather head ornaments. One of them has
donned a piece of European calico, and the one to the extreme right
appears to have done the same. These would doubtless be regarded as
highly decorative additions. A few long thin dancing ribbons can be
seen hanging from their belts. The elaborate carved (turtle?) shell
ornament hanging over the breast of the man to the left is certainly
not of Mafulu make, and has probably come from the coast. I never
saw anything like it when I was at Mafulu. The two boys in front are
holding the ornament of elaborately prepared strings of feathers hung
upon a stick, and worn by dancers on their backs, and into which the
best feathers are generally put.