568 



think that the real decorum is observed by givers and receivers 

 •only on the occasion of the first gift. At the feasts there is 

 always some quarrelling about pigs, though this does not mean 

 that a man is not eager to do his best in giving them. One 

 of my friends in Mailu failed, through no fault of his own, 

 but through the accidental death of his pig, to bring the 

 necessary gift to a member of his wife's family; he w^as 

 genuinely mortified by this, and he was ashamed to go to the 

 houses of the Maraduhu clan, which was to oive the feast. 

 He told me that no reproaches, still less any quarrelling or 

 punishment, awaited him, but that he was sorry and ashamed 

 for his own and his wife's sake. This is an illustration of 

 what I gathered from, the general accounts and concrete 

 exam^ples of all my informants. Everyone was proud of 

 having given so many pigs, and everyone vv^as eagerly anxious 

 to procure as many animals as possible for the approaching 

 feast (comp. chap, iv., sec. 4, on "Trading," and chap, v., 

 sec. 3, on "Feasts.") 



If a man wants to behave like a gentleman he gives at 

 least one pig a year. The first goes usually to the girl's 

 father, and as a clan very seldom gives a feast every year, 

 the next pig goes to some other relation of the girl. When 

 a girl's clan is again making a Maduna, the bridegroom gives 

 a pig to his eledst brother-in-law, and so on. All these indi- 

 viduals are supposed to return his presents, though it seems 

 that, as a rule, a man never gets back the same amount of 

 pigs as he has given to his wife. 



;In order to complete the account of the relationship 

 obtaining between a man and his wife's family, the custom 

 called Lid^i must be mentioned. It comprises a series of 

 taboos observed by the man, which entail a general avoidance 

 of some of his relations-in-law, and forbid him to mention 

 their names. The taboo upon the names of these people is 

 analogous to the taboos upon the persojial names of the 

 parents and grandparents, mentioned above (chap, ii., sec. 4). 

 It is to be noted that the two sets of taboos — the one referring: 

 to the ''own" relatives and the other referring to relatives-in- 

 law — are distinguished by different names. The first is called 

 by the general term, Gora, applied to things tabooed or for- 

 bidden; and the second by a special name, Lia'i. The father- 

 in-law fEvai' egi) and his son-in-law (Bofsia) do not address 

 each other by their names, nor do they pronounce them. Their 

 names areLid'i to each other, but they may talk to and approach 

 one another. The same restrictions apply to a man and his 

 mother-in-law, and also to a woman and both her parents- 

 in-law. The strongest Lid'i restrictions, however, obtain 

 between a man and his wife's elder sister ( Uini'avefsaJ, this 



