pigs); and sweet potatoes must be plentiful for the feeding of these
pigs. And finally they will need plenty of native tobacco for their
guests. In view of these requirements it is obvious that a year or two
is by no means an excessive period for the preparations for the feast.

The existing yam and taro gardens, intended for community consumption
alone, will be quite insufficient for the purpose, and fresh bush
land is at once cleared, and new gardens are made and planted,
the products of these new gardens being allocated specially for the
feast, and not used for any other purpose. There is also an extensive
planting of sugar-cane, probably in old potato gardens. For bananas
there will probably be no great need of preparation, as they are
grown plentifully, and there is no specific appropriation of these;
but the sufficiency of the supply of the tobacco for the visitors,
and of the sweet potatoes for the pigs, has to be seen to, also
that of the _ine_ Pandanus trees, the fruit of which has often to be
procured from elsewhere, and of the trees. And finally the village
pigs must be bred and fattened, for which latter purpose it is a
common practice to send young pigs to people in other communities;
and these people will be invited to the big feast, and will have pig
given to them, though not members of the invited community; but never
in any case will any of them have a part of a pig which he himself
has fattened. The cultivated vegetable foods and the pigs are not
provided on a communistic basis, but are supplied by the individual
members of the community, each household of which is expected to
do its duty in this respect; and no person who or whose family has
not provided at least one pig (some of them provide more than one)
will be allowed to take part in the preliminary feast and subsequent
dancing, to be mentioned below.