Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/76

Rh 2) and in the rites o£ beauty magic at festivities (ch. xi, secs. 2-4) women are the main actors. On certain occasions, such as first pregnancy ritual and the first appearance after childbirth, as well as at big tribal dances and kayasa (competitive displays), women appear in full dress and decoration (pl. 13), which correspond to the men's full festive attire (as seen on pl. 14 and 79).

An interesting incident occurs during the milamala, the annual season of dancing and feasting held after the harvest. This period is inaugurated by a ceremony, the principal aim of which is to break the taboo on drums. In this initial feast there is a distribution of food, and the men, adorned in full dancing attire, range themselves for the performance, the drummers and the singers in the centre of a ring formed by the decorated dancers. As in a normal dance, standing in the central place, the singers intone a chant, the dancers begin to move slowly and the drummers to beat time. But they are not allowed to proceed: almost at the first throb of the drums, there breaks forth from inside the huts the wailing of those women who are still in mourning; from behind the inner row of houses, a crowd of shrieking, agitated female figures rush out and attack the dancers, beat them with sticks, and throw coconuts, stones, and pieces of wood at them. The men are not bound by custom to display too considerable courage and in a trice the drummers, who had so solemnly initiated the performance, have entirely disappeared; and the village lies empty, for the women pursue the fugitives. But the taboo is broken and, on the Rh