Notes on the Customs of Mota, Banks Islands. 139 



In every village is a long house, divided into compart- 

 ments, each with its own oven, each compartment belonging 

 to a certain rank. This house is the gamal, so called, with 

 variations, in the New Hebrides also. Money has to be paid 

 to all above in rank in order to rise to a higher degree, and 

 in the higher ranks many pigs have to be given. In these 

 ranks the members are few, and have great power, inasmuch 

 as they have it in their hands to allow those below to rise, 

 or to exclude them. 



Formerly every male was obliged to eat in the gamal only, 

 and if he ate in a private house he had to pay a fine. There 

 is absolutely no superstitious character attaching to this 

 institution, and it is no mystery. Women have something 

 of the same sort among themselves, but no gamal. The 

 Banks Islands people think the New Hebrides sup we very 

 lax; but the New Hebrides great men in it seem to be 

 greater men than any in Mota. 



30. The Tamate. 



This institution also has great influence, and spreads as 

 far at least as Ambrym in the New Hebrides. It is a secret 

 society, with many parallel secret societies, some trifling, 

 some very select. No superstitious element can be dis- 

 covered, though much mystery is cultivated. The name 

 tamate — ghosts — and the pretence kept up was that it was 

 an association with ghosts, and that the members, when they 

 appeared, were ghosts. The meeting-places, kept strictly 

 private, are close to every village. When the members are 

 out gathering materials for their feasts, the uninitiated 

 are warned out of the way by peculiar cries. When 

 they emerge in public for dances or other shows they 

 are disguised with masks and hats of extraordinary 

 form. 



Candidates for admission have to pay money to every 

 member, and spend a certain number of days in the 

 "salagoro," the private retreat of the society. To some 

 of the societies admission costs a great deal of money. The 

 men who belong to these, being the richest people, and, 

 therefore high in the supwe also, have a great deal of 

 power. For example, many years ago the man highest in 

 rank in the supwe, and member of all the tamates in Mota 

 and the nearer part of Yanua Lava — Mala by name — for- 

 bade all molestation of Bishop Patteson's party; and, in 



