Chapter VII

, which runs: "Recently deceased spirit of my maternal uncle, etc."

At the beginning of this spell, we find enumerated a series of fish names. These fishes all have red markings on their bodies, and they are tabooed to the people, who recite the mwasila magic and do the Kula. If eaten, they would give a man an ugly appearance. The above quoted saying of one of my informants: "we eat bad fish, we are ugly," refers to these fishes amongst others. In this formula, the invocation is partly an appeal for assistance, and partly a sort of exorcism, which is meant to undo the evil effects of breaking the taboo of eating these fish. As this formula is associated with the ritual washing, the whole proceeding possesses a sort of magical consistency, which obtains within an exceedingly obscure and confused concatenation of ideas: the redness of the fish, the red painting on the human bodies for beauty, the invocation of the fishing magic, the taboo on this fish. These ideas hang together somehow, but it would be unwise and incorrect to attempt to put them into any logical order or sequence. [77] The sentence about 'visiting,' in this spell could not be made clear by any of my native informants. I venture to suggest that the fish are invited to assist the adventurer on his Kula visit, and to help him with their beauty.

The next few sentences refer to the reception he anticipates at Dobu, in the forcible and exaggerated language of magic. The words which have been here translated by 'take to his bosom,' 'hug,' 'befriend,' are the terms used to describe the fondling and rocking and hugging of small children. According to native custom, it would not be considered effeminate or ridiculous for men to put their arms round each other and walk or sit about thus. And it must be added, this is done without any homo-sexual intention, at least of the grosser type. None the less, no such fondling would really take place between the Dobuans and their Kula partners. The mention of the 'great woman,' the 'great good woman' refers to the wife and sister of the partner, who, as we have said before, are considered to wield great influence in the transactions.

The two pigeons and the two parrots express metaphorically the friendship between the reciter of this magic and his partner. The long list that follows expresses the exchange of his ordinary relations for his Dobuan friends. An exaggerated description follows of the intimacy between him and his partner, on whose arms and legs he will sit, and from whose mouth he will partake of the betel chewing materials.

I shall give a sample of another of these spells, associated with adornment and personal beauty. This is the spell spoken over the betel-nut with which the toliwaga and the members of his canoe draw lines of vermilion red on their faces. Young betel-nut, when crushed with lime in a small mortar, produces pigment of wonderful brightness and intensity. Travellers in the countries of the Indian Ocean and parts of the Pacific know it well, as the paint that colours the lips and tongues of the natives.

TALO SPELL

"Red paint, red paint of the udawada fish! Red paint, red paint, of the mwaylili fish! At the one end of the aromatic pandanus flower-petal; at the other end of the Duwaku flower. There are two red paints of mine, they flare up, they flash."

"My head, it flares up, it flashes; my red paint, it flares up, it flashes,

My facial blacking, it flares up, it flashes;

My aromatic paint, it flares up, it flashes;

My little basket, it flares up, it flashes;

My lime spoon, it flares up, it flashes;

My lime pot, it flares up, it flashes;

My comb, it flares up, it flashes."

And so on, enumerating the various personal appurtenances, such as the mat, the stock-in-trade, the big basket, the charmed bundle (lilava) and then again the various parts of his head, that is his nose, his occiput, his tongue, his throat, his larynx, his eyes, and his mouth. The whole series of words is again repeated with another leading word instead of "it flares up, it flashes." The new word, 'mitapwaypwa'i' is a compound, expressing a desire, a coveting, nascent in the eyes. The eyes are, according to native psycho-physical theories, the seat of admiration, wish and appetite in matters of sex, of greed for food, and for material possessions. Here, this expression conveys that the Dobuan partner, will, on beholding his visitor, desire to make Kula with him.

The spell ends: "My head is made bright, my face flashes. I have acquired a beautiful shape, like that of a chief; I have acquired a shape that is good. I am the only one; my renown stands alone."

At the beginning we have again the mention of two fishes; evidently the redness of the fish is the right redness for the Kula! I am unable to explain the meaning of the second sentence, except that the petals of the pandanus flower are slightly coloured at one end, and that they are considered as one of the finest and most attractive ornaments. The middle part and the end of this spell need no commentary.

These two spells will be sufficient to indicate the general character of the beauty magic of the Kula. One more spell must be adduced here, that of the conch shell. This shell is as a rule medicated at this stage of the Kula proceedings. Sometimes, however, the toliwaga would, before departure from home, utter the formula into the opening of the conch shell, and close this up carefully, so that the virtue might not evaporate. The conch shell is made of a big specimen of the Cassis cornuta shell, at the broad end of which the apex of the spiral windings is knocked out, so as to form a mouth-piece. The spell is not uttered into the mouthpiece, but into the broad opening between the lips, both orifices being afterwards closed with coco-nut husk fibre until the shell has actually to be blown.

THE SPELL OF THE TA'UYA (CONCH SHELL)

"Mwanita, Mwanita! Come there together; I will make you come there together! Come here together; I will make you come here together! The rainbow appears there; I will make the rainbow appear there! The rainbow appears here; I will make the rainbow here."

"Who comes ahead with the Kula? I" (here the name of the reciter is uttered), "come ahead with the Kula, I shall be the only chief; I shall be the only old man; I shall be the only one to meet my partner on the road. My renown stands alone; my name is the only one. Beautiful valuables are exchanged here with my partner; Beautiful valuables are exchanged there with my partner; The contents of my partner's basket are mustered."

After this exordium there comes a middle part, constructed on the general principle of one word's being repeated with a series of others. The keyword here is an expression denoting the state of excitement which seizes a partner, and makes him give generous Kula offerings. This word here is repeated first with a series of words, describing the various personal belongings of the partner, his dog, his belt; his tabooed coco-nut and betel-nut; and then, with a new series of terms denoting the different classes of Kula valuables which are expected to be given. This part could therefore be translated thus:--

"A state of excitement seizes his dog, his belt, his gwara" (taboo on coco-nuts and betel-nuts) "his bagido'u necklace, his bagiriku necklace, his bagidudu necklace, etc." The spell ends in a typical manner: "I shall kula, I shall rob my Kula; I shall steal my Kula; I shall pilfer my Kula. I shall kula so as to make my canoe sink; I shall kula so as to make my outrigger go under. My fame is like thunder, my steps are like earthquake!"

The first word of this spell, mwanita, is the native name for a long worm covered with rings of black armour. I was told that it is mentioned here because of its similarity to the spondylus shell necklaces, which also consist of many rings. I obtained this formula in Sinaketa, hence this interpretation heeds only the necklaces, though the simile might also obviously be extended to armshells, for a number of armshells threaded on a string, as they can be seen on Plate LX, presents also a likeness to the mwanita worm. It may be added here that Sinaketa is one of these Kula communities in which the overseas expeditions are done only in one direction, to the South, from where only the spondylus necklaces are fetched. Its counterpart, Kiriwina, to the North, carries on again only one-sided overseas Kula. The formulæ which I obtained in Kiriwina differ from those of Sinaketa in their main parts: whenever there is a list of spondylus necklaces in a Sinaketan tapwana (main part) a list of the several varieties of armshells would be used in a Kiriwinian tapwana. In Kitava, where, as in several other Kula communities, the overseas expeditions are carried out in both directions, the same formula would be used by the same man with two different main parts, according as to whether he was sailing East to fetch mwali, or West to fetch soulava. No changes, however, would be made in the beginning of a spell.

The sentence 'come here together' refers to the collected valuables. The play on 'there' and 'here,' represented in the native language by the sounds 'm' and 'w,' which are used as interchangeable formatives, is very frequent in magic; (see