Mella's Ngasech, Part Two

I will cover Mella's Ngasech, but I will try not to duplicate most of the things you learned two weeks ago with the posts about Emadch's ceremony.

[This was Mella's baby, only three weeks old. It often had that 'deer in headlights' look]

[the raw materials for skirt-making]

[the young girls made their own skirts]

I think this was a block of dried ginger that the ladies used to mix with coconut oil to get the final oil product that is spread on the mother and girls. While ginger and coconut oil are used all nine days of the ceremony, I think this block (which took a lot of work to make) was only used on the actual day of the ngasech. And it might have been used only in the oil which was applied to the mother.

[mixing the oil]

[one of many varieties of Bird of Paradise flowers in Palau]

[prepping]