novices. It is given out that the lads
are swallowed by a ferocious monster called a _balum_, who, however, is
induced by the sacrifice of many pigs to vomit them up again. In spewing
them out of his maw he bites or scratches them, and the wound so
inflicted is circumcision. This explanation of the rite is fobbed off on
the women, who more or less believe it and weep accordingly when their
sons are led away to be committed to the monster's jaws. And when the
time for the ceremony is approaching, the fond mothers busy themselves
with rearing and fattening young pigs, so that they may be able with
them to redeem their loved ones from the belly of the ravenous beast;
for he must have a pig for every boy. When a lad bleeds to death from
the effect of the operation, he is secretly buried, and his sorrowful
mother is told that the monster swallowed him and refused to bring him
up again. What really happens is that the youths are shut up for several
months in a house specially built for the purpose in the village. During
their seclusion they are under the charge of guardians, usually two
young men, and must observe strictly a rule of fasting and chastity.
When they are judged to be ready to undergo the rite, they are led forth
and circumcised in front of the house amid a prodigious uproar made by
the swinging of bull-roarers. The noise is supposed to be the voice of
the monster who swallows and vomits up the novice at circumcision. The
bull-roarer as well as the monster bears the name of _balum_, and the
building in which the novices are lodged before and after the operation
is called the monster's house (_balumslum_). After they have been
circumcised the lads remain in the house for several months till their
wounds are healed; then, painted and bedizened with all the ornaments
that can be collected, they are brought back and restored to their
joyful mothers. Women must vacate the village for a long time while the
initiatory ceremonies are being performed.[428]

[Sidenote: Novices at circumcision supposed to be killed and then
restored to a new and higher life.]

The meaning of the whole rite, as I pointed out in dealing with the
similar initiatory rite of the Yabim, appears to be that the novices are
killed and then restored to a new and better life; for after their
initiation they rank no longer as boys but as full-grown men, entitled
to all the privileges of manhood and citizenship, if we can speak of
such a thing as citi