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] I have a written account of the proceedings sent from Belaga by an old friend and pupil of mine, and explained to me in all particulars in Norfolk Island by a native of a neighbouring district, who remembered his own initiation perfectly well. I have also been furnished by Bishop Selwyn with the account given to him at Belaga, the seat of the Matambala, by initiated men. It is not easy in all points to connect the two accounts, and some of the particulars are described with unnecessary minuteness, but the general course and character of the proceedings are plain. The month in which the whole begins is that in which the canarium almonds become ripe, and the bigo, the gathering of the first-fruits, hereafter to be described, is the first step in the ceremonial. The cracking of the nuts begins at Gole and goes through the twelve places to Buthinigai. The women and children set baskets in rows along the road when the new moon of bigo is seen, and the men gather the almonds from morning till nightfall, and fill the baskets with them. The next moon is the moon of sweeping, and they sweep the paths from Gole to Buthinigai, signifying that the paths are now reserved for the Matambala. Then follows the time of the close tambu, when the whole district becomes sacred, and the Teimbelaga, when they all assemble at Materago to see the sasale dance of Siko in the night.

On the following morning the Matambala, those already