Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/99

Rh if they be consecutive. The terms with sex prefixes (4) are normally used only of elder children who may be distinguished by their dress.

There are, besides these more specific subdivisions, the three main distinctions of age, between the ripe man and woman in the full vigour of life and the two stages — those of childhood and of old age—which limit manhood and womanhood on either side. The second main stage is divided into two parts, mainly by the fact of marriage. Thus, the words under (5) primarily designate unmarried people and to that extent are opposed to (6a), but they also imply youth fulness or unripeness, and in that respect are opposed to (6).

The male term for old age, tomwaya (7) can also denote rank or importance. I myself was often so addressed, but I was not flattered, and much preferred to be called toboma (literally "the tabooed man"), a name given to old men of rank, but stressing the latter attribute rather than the former. Curiously enough, the compliment or distinction implied in the word tomwaya becomes much weaker, and almost disappears in its feminine equivalent. Numwaya conveys that tinge of scorn or ridicule inseparable from "old woman" in so many languages.

When a boy reaches the age of from twelve to fourteen years, and attains that physical vigour which comes with sexual maturity, and when, above all, his increased Rh