Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/206

Rh, to mean cause, origin, source of strength; tapwana, the middle part of the trunk, also means the trunk itself, the main body of any elongated object, the length of a road; matala—originally eye, or point (as in a spear), and sometimes replaced by the word dogina or dabwana, the tip of a tree or the top of any high object—stands for the highest part, or, in more abstract metaphor, the final word, the highest expression.

The comparison as generally applied to the sexual mechanism is not, as we have said, altogether devoid of meaning, and only becomes nonsensical in ascribing a special function to the kidneys. These are regarded as a highly important and vital part of the human organism, and mainly because they are the source of the seminal fluid. Another view attributes male and female discharge, not to the kidneys, but to the bowels. In either case, the natives consider that something in the bowels is the actual agent of ejaculation: ipipisi momoona—"it squirts out the discharge."

Very remarkable is their entire ignorance of the physiological function of the testes. They are not aware that anything is produced in this organ, and leading questions as to whether the male fluid {momona) has not its source there are answered emphatically in the negative. "See, women have no testes and yet they produce momona." This part of the male body is said to be only an ornamental appendage {katububula). "Indeed, how ugly would a penis look without the testes," a native aesthete will exclaim. The testes serve "to make it look proper" (bwoyna).

Rh