oo
on persons undergoing the nose-piercing operation, and the optional
food taboo to which the nearest relative of a deceased person may
submit, in lieu of wearing the mourning string. There is also a
general taboo against any food other than sweet potato and chewing
of betel-nuts, with its condiments of lime and pepper, upon any male
person who intends to take part, either as a dancer or singer, in any
ceremonial dance. This latter term includes the dance at a big feast
and the women's dance on the eve of it, but not the dancing during
the six months' interval before it. It also includes the dance at
any of the various minor ceremonies above described, and at a funeral
ceremony. The period of restriction in the case of the big feast begins
when the formal croton-leaf invitation has gone out to the guests,
about a month before the date of the feast. In the case of a funeral
it is necessarily only quite short, and in cases of other ceremonies
it varies, being largely dependent on the length of period during
which the approach of the ceremony is known. During the period of
restriction the people avail themselves largely of the privilege of
betel-chewing, and prior to a big feast their mouths get very red. In
connection with personal ceremonies upon assumption of the perineal
band, admission to the _emone_ (excepting, as regards this, the case
of a child of very tender years), qualifying for drumming and dancing,
devolution of chieftainship and nose-piercing, the person concerned,
male or female, is under the same food restriction for a day prior
to that of the ceremony, and as regards nose-piercing this taboo
is prior to the actual piercing, and is quite distinct from the
subsequent taboo already referred to. There does not appear to be
any taboo connected with fishing, hunting or war.

The observance of all these taboos is secured only by superstitious
belief or public opinion, or both, there being no method of enforcing
them by punishment or by any exercise of authority by the chiefs.

CHAPTER XIX

Note on the Kuni People

Father Egedi, who has studied the Kuni people, and has written a
series of articles about them in numbers of _Anthropos_, told me
that he regarded them as being a cross between the Papuan-speaking
Mafulu and the Melanesian-speaking Papuo-Melanesians of Mekeo and the
adjoining coast. Whether or not this is absolutely and strictly correct
is a question upon which I will not venture to exp