| caption: |
Chapter six: Cycle migration |
| caption: |
ritual ceremonies on re-settling Impoi |
| note: |
footnotes indicated by boxes within square brackets |
| text: |
Shortly before the Hga-ngi festival the settlers transported their rice-stocks, livestock and household goods to the outskirts of the site, the Asalu villagers helping them. The Asalu villagers then left, and the following morning the settlers entered the new site ceremonially, the tingkhupeo leading a sacrificial bull. Fire was made ritually at the hazoa, where the head was cooked and eaten by elders and the two priests. The shins were given, as is customary at all sacrifices of cattle, to the priests and their two assistants; the intestines were scattered well beyond the village limits with the expressed wish that the village might expand and extend so far; and the rest of the carcass was distributed among the settlers. After this ceremony the new settlement was ritually separated from Asalu and for a year there were certain restrictions on visits and on the bringing of food from one village to the other. |
