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 suspected from the actual facts of the proceeding; but I think it probably has a superstitious origin.  Although in theory all the village pigs have been killed and given to the guests at the big feast, there are always some left wandering in the bush, which have not been caught.  These pigs are, however, never used in the purification ceremony, in which they always kill wild pigs only.  It has been suggested to me that a reason for this may be that, if they killed village pigs, they would thereby advertise the fact that they had not killed and distributed all their village pigs at the big feast; but this hardly seems to be a satisfactory explanation.  It clearly falls to the ground as regards present intent if, as I was told, there always is an unkilled residue of village pigs after a big feast.  The practice of killing wild pigs only would seem to associate itself with the fact that pigs killed at this ceremony are eaten in the village itself, for there seems to be no doubt that among the Mafulu people village pigs are never eaten in their own village on ceremonial occasions; and indeed it seems doubtful whether they are ever eaten there at all.

In fact, it appears to be a general custom in connection with all ceremonial feasts to which outside guests are invited, to kill village pigs only at the feast, and for these to be given to the guests to be eaten by them in their own villages, and afterwards to have a second feast, to which outside guests are not invited, and at which wild pigs are killed, and eaten by the villagers themselves within the village.

The pig-killing is generally, and perhaps always, done in the morning.

It is thought by the Mafulu Fathers of the Mission as regards the subsequent partial desertion of the village that, although it is only partial, and although there is a practical reason for it, it is based upon superstition, and is regarded by the people as being a formal leaving of the village, pending its complete purification.

Plates 67 to 70 are reproductions of four photographs which Father Clauser was good enough to give me, the two former ones having been taken at the big feast held in the village of Amalala in the year 1909 and the two latter prior to and at a big feast held in the village of Seluku.