On occasions when a dispute needs settling or during the communal lull of Lilkerin it is common for two or more Girav gel to compete with one another in Beferin. The point of Beferin is to prove one’s aquatic prowess against their opponents. The game is prepared by anyone available who is not participating by sinking a large number of different sized Toqume1 to the bottom of a local reef. Usually three different sizes are used being worth more points the larger they are. Then the participants dive and attempt to collect more points worth of Toqume than their opponents. Each participant can only dive once, upon surfacing their collected points are counted and their score is locked in.
When skilled Girav gel are playing Beferin dive times easily exceed 40 minutes and the players return with huge armfuls of the glass orbs to be counted by whichever tribal member was chosen as officiant: Someone impartial in the case that Beferin was started thanks to a disagreement, but during Lilkerin anyone interested and often children take the role of counting the acquired Toqume.
Footnotes
-
Small glass spheres full of sand ↩