628 



successful and that they should sell the arm-shells in a lucra- 

 tive manner and bring back many pigs. 



The name of the charm was Mariwdna deua-reva (see 

 pi. xxxviii., figs. 1 and 2). The man who made it remained 

 within his house for three days, and during that time observed 

 the usual taboo — that is to say, he abstained from boiled food 

 and fish, drank no water, and only ate roasted green coconut. 

 The rite was performed immediately before the departure of 

 the canoes in front of the house of every man who was about t'o 

 sail, by the chief performer, who sometimes had an assistant. 



The performers stand in front of the house and, singing 

 an incantation, which I was unable to record, thev sweep the 

 platform with long green reeds with a slow swaying motion. 

 Then they tie the reeds round the central, front post of the 

 house, which proceeding is said to have some magical influence 

 upon the arm- shells. The performer sails, as a rule, on the 

 canoe. 



With the return from Aroma the trading activities of the 

 Mailu are finished for the year ; but as there was a big feast 

 in Mailu practically every year the trading was resumed in 

 every Aurdri season, and was intimately connected with all 

 the preparations for the feast are interwoven with the prelim- 

 inary festivities — it absorbed the whole social life of the 

 Mailu for the better part of the year. The trading was essen- 

 tially seasonal and regular, each expedition forming a step 

 in a consecutive series of ceremonial transactions and industrial 

 activities (making of arm-shells, sago, pottery; comp. last sec. 

 of this chapter), and everything leading up to the final expe- 

 dition which brought back the all-important pig supply. The 

 times of sailing adduced in the above description cover the case 

 of a rather big feast. If it were a smaller one it would usually 

 be held at an earlier date, sometimes as early as December, and 

 the two expeditions to Aroma might in that case be reduced 

 to one only. 



On the mainland the feasts were held earlier, in the 

 Lioro season. Here the natives did not, of course, make all 

 the preparations and trading expeditions. They reared their 

 own pigs or collected them from the neighbouring villages, and 

 they made sago from their own swamp. To this subject it 

 will be necessary to return in describing the feast and the 

 festive activities in chapter v. The importance of the feast in 

 the native social life and the great interest they take in it 

 cannot be overrated. The intimate association between the 

 economic life of the Mailu islanders and their festive activities 

 must also be fully realized if one wishes to form a right idea 

 of their social life. Although my knowledge of the mainland 

 Mailu is very limited, I think that their economic life — their 



