EFATE, NEW HEBRIDES. 721 



on the way with the intei, and finally hanos up the nala and 

 intei on the shore ; if a male, a bow is thus hung* up and 

 left instead of the nala. On all these occasions there is a 

 feast. The woman is isolated and regarded as unclean till 

 the thirtieth day, on which day, for the first time, the mother 

 and the child go out of the house and are both purified with 

 sea -water. According- to Efatese notions the sea is the great 

 purifying- medium. This particular purification on the 

 thirtieth day of the child is called nasellan ; they selia ki the 

 child ; as to the mother, she is said to los, i.e., wash or bathe 

 in the sea, or in sea water. The child is washed in sea water 

 in a vessel, in which also gravel is put. This completed, a 

 great shout is raised, and the Matemauri is dismissed with 

 presents or payment for her services. 



The name in Efatese for umdeanness is nimum (dialect, 

 namcifn), and that of childbirth is called nimani nafiselan. 

 The men are afraid of it, and keep away from the house in 

 which the birth has taken place. They say that men by 

 going to or near the house would contract the nimam or 

 uncleanness, and that in consequence " their eyes would be 

 darkened (that is, they would be weak) in war," and that if, 

 having contracted it, they went to their plantations, the yams 

 would rot, hoa, i.e. literally, stink. This applies to the day 

 of birth. A sacred man {natamole tabu), who inadvertently 

 goes near such a house, immediately purifies himself by a 

 religious ceremony, as the uncleanness would be fatal to his 

 sacredness or holiness (natabuen). 



With respect to iufanticide, if the child was born and the 

 parents wished it killed it would be buried ahve. Deformed 

 newly-born infants were treated in this way. No cannibalism 

 accompanied this practice, though a feast was held. Abor- 

 tion was much practised. Violence was applied to the child 

 in the womb either by the mother by the matemauri, this 

 latter accompanying the manipulation with the koro. A 

 plant called nakasu tabu was sometimes eaten by a woman 

 who had just given birth to a child, in order that she might 

 not again conceive while bringing up the child born. Various 

 reasons are given for the general practice of infanticide, 

 which may be summed up thus : to avoid the necessity of 

 self-denial, expense, and trouble. 



The child is named by a fixed rule, as follows : — The name 

 consisted of two parts, the tribal prefix denoting the tribe of 

 the father, and a general term which was often suggested by 

 the circumstances of the time of birth, or by its being borne 



