280 A NATUBALIST IN CELEBES ch. xi 



upon the ground and says, ' I have done wrong,' so that 

 his body, particularly his nose, may not become covered 

 with ulcers and boils. If it should be necessary for him to 

 refer to or to call his father or mother-in-law, he will, 

 perhaps, use half the name, or use another name of a 

 similar meaning. Thus for Wenas he will say 'We'; for 

 Mainalo, ' Maina ' ; for Waworuntu, ' Wawo ' ; or instead of 

 using the word wawo, which signifies ' above ' in the same 

 name, he will use another word of the same meaning, such 

 as natas. If his mother-in-law's name be Sijowan, then 

 he says for ' Sijo,' which means ' nine,' ' Kehana ' (amiss), 

 or if her name be Ngisa, for the word marisa (Spanish 

 pepper) he says 'Ngumetnget' (hot or sharp) (89). I can 

 find no evidence that the Minahasser shuns or avoids his 

 parents-in-law in any way than this. He has no hesitation 

 in conversing with them, nor hides his face from them, nor 

 shuns their presence. The custom is probably on the eve 

 of total disappearance, and this formality about the men- 

 tioning of proper names is the last phase of a custom which 

 was at one time much more prominent in its details and 

 strict in its observance. 



Dr. Tylor (77) has shown that there is now sufficient 

 evidence to prove that customs such as these originated in 

 the times and tribes where the husband lived in the house 

 of his wife's parents. In such conditions of society the 

 husband was not a member of their family, and he was 

 always either ceremonially or actually ' cut ' by them, and 

 was expected in return ceremonially or actually to cut them. 

 As I shall endeavour to show at the close of this chapter, 

 we have reason for believing that it was the custom of the 

 Minahassers many years ago for the man to reside in the 

 house of his wife's parents, and we are justified in supposing 

 that the ' avoidance ' rule was much more strictly adhered 

 to then than it is in modern times. 



