720 PROCEEDrNGS OF SECTION G. 



each male and each female may have other Piraurus, each of 

 whom has his or her Noa, the group may extend to con- 

 siderable dimensions. This is precisely the Nair custom, and 

 it is not polyandry at all in Mr. M'Lennan's sense of the 

 term. It is regulated Group-marriage. I say " regulated," 

 because neither men nor women can choose their Piraurus at 

 their own will. They are allotted by the Council of Elders, 

 having regard to the regulations of the in ter- marry ing 

 divisions of the tribe, and to other circumstances which may 

 have to be taken into consideration. 



I had better state, in conclusion, that this Pirauru custom is 

 not common to all the Australian tribes. 



11.— EFATE, NEW HEBRIDES. 

 By REV. D. MACDONALD. 



Birth and Childhood. 



On the day of the birth of a child a number of women 

 assemble, and one old woman called the Mitamauri, or Mate- 

 maure, has charge of the proceedings. She takes the leaves 

 of a plant used in cei'emonial or religious purification called 

 nasuafa, and performs an operation called koro on its leaves, 

 that is, she makes a prayer or incantation, which is finished 

 by breathing several times upon the leaves. Then the 

 assembled women attach these leaves to their Avaist cinctures, 

 and are not allowed to surata, that is, to go away from that 

 house about their ordinary business till after the performance 

 of another ceremony on the fifth day after the birth, when 

 they remove the leaves of the nasuafa from their waist 

 cinctures. The ceremony on the fifth day is the koroing of 

 the noas (native cabbage) leaves, which are then cooked and 

 given to the mother of the child for the first time to be 

 eaten. When it is known that the child is a male some 

 man in the village raises the cry used by men only. This is 

 regarded as the expression of a wish that the child may, 

 when he grows up, be a man indeed ; if a female, he raises 

 the peculiar shrill sounds made by women in laughing — as 

 before, expressing a wish that the child may grow up to be 

 a perfect woman. On the 30th day, when the child is to be 

 taken out of the house to the shore, if it is a female, one 

 goes before with a small nala (female carrying basket) and 

 intei (red powder, tumeric), and paints or marks any objects 



