t or near
its head, and some of them had a similar bunch similarly tied at or
near its middle. See also Dr. Seligmann's reference (_Melanesians
of British New Guinea_, p. 298) to the Roro custom for warriors,
when returning from a successful campaign, to throw their spears at
the roof and sides of the marea. In Mekeo there is no corresponding
ceremony on the birth of a first child; but men, women and children
of the village collect by the house and sing all through the night;
and in the morning the woman's husband will kill a pig or dog for them,
which they cook and eat without ceremony.

[73] Dr. Seligmann refers to this custom among the Roro people
(_Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 256), and there is no doubt
that it exists among the Mekeo people also. Father Desnoes, of the
Sacred Heart Mission, told me that in Mekeo, though the pig used to
be given when the boy adopted his perineal band at the age of four,
five, six, or seven, it is now generally given earlier. The pig is
there regarded as the price paid for the child, and is called the
child's _engifunga_.

[74] Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 67.

[75] Seligmann's _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 71.

[76] _Melanesians of British New Guinea_, p. 21.

[77] In Mekeo such a devolution of chieftainship is the occasion for
a very large feast.

[78] This ceremony is different from the Mekeo ceremony on the
elevation by a chief of his successor to a joint chieftainship, of
which some particulars were given to me by Father Egedi; but there
is an element of similarity to a Mekeo custom for the new chief,
after the pigs have been killed and partly cut up by someone else,
to cut the backs of the pigs in slices.

[79] According to Dr. Seligmann, among the Koita the forbidden
degrees of relationship extend to third cousins (_Melanesians of
British New Guinea_, p. 82); whereas it will be seen that among the
Mafulu it only extends, as between people of the same generation,
to first cousins. But a Mafulu native who was grandson of the common
ancestor would be prohibited from marrying his first cousin once
removed (great-granddaughter of that ancestor) or his first cousin
twice removed (great-great-granddaughter of that ancestor).

[80] But see p. 178, note 1.

[81] Half-a-dozen years ago, before open systematic killing and
cannibalism were checked, it was a Kuni custom, when a woman died in
her confinement, to bury the living baby wit