th it; but in this case he is not accompanied by a woman.

Fifteenth: The feast is now over, and all the guests return to their
homes, taking away with them everything that has been given to them.

Sixteenth: The village has, however, to undergo a process which I may
perhaps call purification. As soon as possible after the guests have
gone, the men of the community go off into the bush and capture wild
pigs, for which purpose they may have to hunt for three or four days,
or even for a week or more. They must have at least one pig, and they
generally have two or more, even up to six. When caught, the pigs
are brought alive into the village, and are killed upon the site of
the cut-down burial platform, this being done by the pig-killer. The
pigs are then cut up and eaten by the members of the villages of the
community, those of the village itself eating their portions there,
and those of the other villages taking their portions away and eating
them in their own villages. Except as regards the killing of the pigs
on the site of the grave, the whole performance appears to be quite
informal. After the eating of the pigs, perhaps on the same day,
or if, as is probable, the feast lasts until late in the evening,
then on the next day, the women of the village clear away the filthy
mess of blood and garbage by which the village enclosure is filled,
and sweep the enclosure from end to end with branches of trees. Then
the bulk of the villagers leave the village and go off into the
gardens and the bush for a period of about six months. The feast
has denuded the village of food, including even sweet potatoes,
to which they have had no time to attend during the period before
the feast, and which have been used up in the feeding of the village
pigs required for it. New gardens are needed, and therefore new bush
has to be cut down, and the land must be cleared and planted with
various things, and especially with sweet potato. For this purpose
it is requisite or usual for them to build temporary houses on the
scene of their labours, in which the people live. The old people,
however, remain in the village, as do also some of the younger ones,
who have to tend the gardens close to it. At the end of the period
they all return, and village life goes on as usual. What the idea in
the native mind may be concerning what I have called the purification
of the village is a matter upon which I was unable to find any clue,
beyond what may be suspe