It is said that “Monihei” means “just like that, that ’s what we want, hang in there!”

But no matter what, every time the Vas shout out Monihei, I understand it in its Chinese transliteration, which comes to mean “rub you black” and which funnily enough coincides with the real thing...

At the sacrificial altar, a few Va elders with black turbans and dressed all in black are chanting:

“Rub it on the girls’ faces; they’ll become increasingly beautiful;

Rub it on the elders’ faces; they will be healthy and long-lived;

Rub it on the children’s faces; they will be safe and their lives propitious;

Rub it on our friends’ faces; our friendships will be ever-lasting

Rub the faces all black, let everyone be happy and joyful forever...”