These village pigs often wander away into the bush, and may disappear from sight for months; but they nevertheless still continue to be village pigs. If, however, they are not seen or heard of for a very long time (say six months), they are regarded as having become wild pigs, and may be caught and appropriated as such. It is usual with village pigs to clip or shorten their ears and tails, or even sometimes to remove their eyes, so as to keep them from wandering into the gardens. [55] But even a village pig thus marked as such would be regarded as having become a wild pig if it had disappeared for a very long time.
Village pigs (as distinguished from wild pigs) are, as will be seen below, never eaten in their own village on ceremonial occasions, or indeed perhaps at all, being only killed and cut up and given to the visitors to take away and eat in their own villages.
These simple people do not appear to have many customs which come under the heading of etiquette, pure and simple.
A boy must soon, say within a few weeks, after he has received his perineal band leave the parental home, and go to live in the _emone;_ but this rule only refers to his general life, and does not prohibit him from ever entering his parents' house. If he receives his band when he is very young, this rule will not begin to operate until he is ten or twelve years old. He is in no case under any prohibition from being in or crossing the village enclosure. A girl is allowed to enter the _emone_, though she may not sleep there, prior to receiving her band, but after that she must never enter it.
A young unmarried man, who has arrived at the marriageable age, must not eat in the presence of women. He can eat in the bush, or inside the _emone_, but he must not eat on the platform of the _emone_, where women might see him. There appear to be no other customs of mutual avoidance, as, for example, that between son-in-law and mother-in-law, and with reference to other marriage relationships, such as are found in some of the Solomon Islands, and among various other primitive races.
Children and unimportant adults must always pass behind a chief, not in front of him, and when a chief is speaking, everyone else, old and young, must be silent.