IDNO

P.98445.LAY

Description

On Catalogue Card for related image P.3847.ACH1: Musical wooden cylinders stacked in lodge. (Pl. XVII fig. 4). Malekula, South West Bay, Seniang district. (references to J. R. A. I. LVIII, 1928).

“Musical wooden cylinders stacked in the club house. The far ends are closed and the performers blow into them through the bamboos, producing a hollow sound said to represent the voice of the dead.” [Layard's caption, 1928, JD 27/4/2009]

“221. S. W. Bay.
Wooden cylinders stacked in the club house. During the death ceremonies of men who have taken the higher degrees (Tanemueliw and upwards), two of these cylinders (called Temes = ghost) are brought outside the club-house and are blown into by means of the hollow bamboos, emitting a loud hollow sound which is supposed to resemble the voice of the dead man talking. Those present are know that this is not so, but the women & children, who are not admitted to the ceremony, are very frightened. The specimen in the Cambridge Museum is a small one, like those on the top of the stack.”
[Layard's caption, 1914 - 1915]

“Malekula.
Long conical musical instruments inside ceremonial house”
[Layard's caption, 1914 - 1915]

Group of wooden cylinders with small sticks inside in a pile. [H. Geismar 24/02/03]

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Vanuatu; Malakula; Seniang district; South West Bay [New Hebrides; Malekula]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Layard, John Willoughby

Collector / Expedition

Date

1914 - 1915

Collection Name

Layard Collection

Source

Layard, Richard

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.98437.LAY to P.98452.LAY were found in the envelope now numbered C523/1/, which was loose in the wooden box now numbered C523/ with N.98453.LAY to N.98589.LAY.

Related Image: See notes for P.3833.ACH1.

Publication: This image is reproduced in Layard, in JRAI (1928, Plate XVII, 4) with the caption:
“Musical wooden cylinders stacked in the club house. The far ends are closed and the performers blow into them through the bamboos, producing a hollow sound said to represent the voice of the dead.”

Related Image: Deacon discusses these in detail. See image and notes on P.3909.ACH1

Related Archive: Layard Papers held in the Mandeville Library, University of San Diego (MSS 84, Box 31, folder 10): Typed list of photographs entitled: ‘New Hebrides. Photographs by J. W. Layard’. Note on first page says that place names in capitals and personal names in inverted commas.
The caption for the image numbered 221:
‘Hollowed logs (temes) in Batnetamp club-house. These are blown into by means of bamboo tubes, and emit a deep sound said to be the voice of the ancestors.’
[H. Geismar 27/10/03]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund.

This catalogue record has been updated to incorporate information published in Geismar and Herle, 2008. Descriptions by Haidy Geismar have been updated to incorporate place and peoples' name and indigenous words. [Jocelyne Dudding 27/4/2009]