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Robert W. Williamson - The Mafulu

R >> Robert W. Williamson >> The Mafulu




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-a-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
personae_ 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.

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