Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/60

46 that a man would never take the initiative in addressing her, but would always wait till he had been spoken to.

A woman always takes the greatest interest in her brother's son. She will always keep her ears open for any rumour about him. If she finds that anyone has a grudge against him or intends to do him an injury, she will warn him of his danger. When the time comes for a man to marry, it is his father's sister who will choose his wife for him, and the marriage she ordains will take place whether the nephew likes it or not. If he chooses for himself, she may veto the marriage, and, if she does so, no one will think of disobedience. In Melanesia the first step in the case of illicit sexual intercourse is usually taken by the woman; in such a case, however, she will not go to the man himself, but will first approach his father's sister.

There is to a certain extent community of goods between a man and his father's sister. The latter can take her nephew's possessions, but only those which he has received from his father or has obtained for himself. She could not take what has come from his mother or his mother's people. If a man wants any of his aunt's goods, he will ask for them, and it is rarely that his request will be refused.

If any of the rules regulating the behaviour of a person towards the father's sister are broken, the offender has to give a feast in honour of the injured relative.

The father's sister also has a number of functions in ceremonial connected with her nephew or niece, and her role in this respect begins even before the birth of the child, when it may be that she acts rather as the sister of the husband than as the aunt of the expected child.

A rite called valugtoqa (? valugtoqai) is often performed at an early stage of pregnancy, which is accompanied by a process of divination to discover the sex of the child. One feature of this rite is the passage of money