Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/70

Rh must have all food, all cooking utensils, dishes, and drinking vessels separate from her husband, or else he must forgo all such diet as is taboo to her; the latter is the course more usually adopted.

Rank entitles its possessors to certain ornaments, which serve both as its insignia and as festive decorations. For instance, a certain kind of shell ornament, the red spondylus shell-discs, may only be worn on the forehead and on the occiput by people of the highest rank. As belts and armlets they are also permitted to those next in rank. Again, an armlet on the forearm is a mark of the first aristocracy. Varieties and distinctions in personal adornment are very numerous, but it will be enough to say here that they are observed in exactly the same manner by male and female, though the ornaments are more frequently made use of by the latter.

Certain house decorations, on the other hand, such as carved boards and ornaments of shell (pls. 2, 20, and 23), which are in pattern and material exclusive to the several higher ranks, are primarily made use of by the male representatives. But a woman of rank who marries a commoner would be fully entitled to have them on her house.

The very important and elaborate ceremonial of respect observed towards people of rank is based on the idea that a man of noble lineage must always remain on a physically higher level than his inferiors. In the presence of a noble, all people of lower rank have to bow the head or bend the body or squat on the ground, according to the degree of their inferiority. On no account must any head reach Rh