684 



the details of the feast are strictly regulated by custom, there 

 seems to be for the master no scope for much initiative. In 

 fact, his function seems to be to give utterance to decisions 

 and orders, which would naturally arise from common consent 

 as well as from normal routine. But the natives hold in great 

 appreciation the right of being prominent in the public eye, 

 and the function of the master is consequently highly valued 

 by a man. Again, there is no doubt that if the master be 

 influential, his exhortations to the villagers to make and gather 

 plenty of food (sago, bananas, etc.), his personal power to 

 make many outsiders bring plenty of pigs, and his personal 

 distinction would make the feast much grander and more 

 successful than in the case of an insignificant person, and the 

 master, for his part, would certainly reap the main share of 

 the glory resulting from the success of the feast. But it must 

 be noted that the master of the feast does not by any means 

 receive the lion's share of the food. As far as I was able to 

 ascertain and observe during the Sol feasts, the master is much 

 less occupied with eating than the others, and if there are 

 many people to whom some food must be distributed his final 

 share in its benefits may be next to nothing. 



The whole task of the clan at the feast consisted in the 

 accumulation of the food (sago, garden produce, coconuts, 

 portions of pigs). The clansmen had to join in the ceremonial 

 proceedings and observe some light taboos, the strict ones being 

 assigned to the master and to the men who acted as his 

 assistants. So also it was the duty of the members of the 

 clan to watch that the people received their dues in the form 

 of pigs at the hands of those whose duty it was to give them. 



It has been said (chap, iii., sec. 3) that the pigs killed 

 at the feast were for the most part given on account of mar- 

 riage connections. On the one hand, all those who had 

 married a girl of a clan were bound to give pigs when her clan 

 gave the feast. On the other hand, the clansmen received pigs 

 from their fathers-in-law or brothers-in-law in return for the 

 pigs given before as payment for their wives. At any rate, 

 the bulk of the pigs consumed at a feast came from outside the 

 clan, and I doubt if more than one per cent, came otherwise 

 than through marriage connections. I have inquired into 

 several cases, and drawn up lists of the pigs given, the result 

 being that I found that all the pigs were given in "payment" 

 for a wife or ''gift." Some vegetable food is also brought with 

 them by the men from other villages. 



All the food accumulated by the work and care of the 

 clan, of the village community, and of the members of other 

 communities who are present at the feast, is divided between 

 those present. The division is formally directed by the master^ 



