CH. XI CUSTOMS OF TEE MINAEASSEBS- 293- 



The heart of the pig is next examined with great care, 

 and the fortunes of the child are told. If the signs are 

 good, and the child is a little boy, the priest prophesies for 

 him great strength and bravery, wealth, and prosperity ; 

 if it is a Uttle girl, beauty, many lovers, and a handsome 

 harta when she is married. 



The feast concludes with the usual dancing,, singing, 

 feasting and general frolic (22). 



The name is given to the child by a walian as he places 

 in its mouth a little cooked rice and pork, which he holds 

 between his finger and thumb. 



In the districts of Passan and Eatahan the child's head 

 is submitted to a process of flattening called in the 

 Bentenansch dialect ' taleran.' A week or so after birth, 

 a board, surrounded by folds of linen, is fastened tightly to 

 the forehead, and every morning when the child is bathed 

 the bands are loosened and immediately made tight again, 

 so that the forehead gradually becomes very consider- 

 ably flattened. This process lasts from fifty to sixty 

 days (97). 



A process of head-flattening similar to this exists in 

 many parts of the world. The Chinese, many races of 

 North American Indians, Mexicans, Peruvians, and Poly- 

 nesians are known to have practised manipulations of their 

 infants' heads for many generations, and even in Western 

 Europe the cradle-board has not long been given up. 



The next ceremony in which the young Alfur has to 

 take part is the initiation into the secrets of the makehet, 

 or the mode of obtaining the wine from the sagoweer palm. 

 This he must learn when he is about twelve months old, 

 or the gods will lose their interest in him, and he will never 

 reach maturity or be lucky in life. When the time has 

 come, the little boy is dressed up like a full-grown man, 

 and bears in miniature the empty bamboo he is to fill with 



