CHAPTER XIV

THE KULA IN DOBU—TECHNICALITIES OF THE EXCHANGE
I
In the last chapter, we spoke about the institution of gwara {mortuary taboo) and of the threatening reception accorded to the visiting party, at the time when it is laid upon the village, and when it has to be lifted. When there is no gwara, and the arriving fleet are on an uvalaku expedition, there will be a big and ceremonial welcome. The canoes, as they approach, will range themselves in a long row facing the shore. The point selected will be the beach, corresponding to a hamlet where the main partner of the ¢oli’uvalaku lives. The canoe of the tolt’uvalaku, of the master of the wvalaku expedition, will range itself at the end of the row. The ¢toli’uvalaku will get up on ta the platform and harangue the natives assembled on the beach. He will try to appeal to their ambition, so that they might give the visitors a large amount of valuables and surpass all other occasions. After that, his partner on the shore will blow a conch-shell, and, wading through the water, advance towards the canoe, and offer the first gift of valuables to the master of the expedition. This may be followed by another gift, again given to the ¢ol1’uvalaku. Other blasts then follow, and men disengage themselves from the throng on the shore, approaching the canoes with necklaces for their partners. A certain order of seniority will be observed in this. The necklaces are always carried ceremonially ; as a rule they will be tied by both ends to a stick, and carried hanging down, with the pendant at the bottom (see Plate LXI). Sometimes, when a vaygu’a (valuable) is carried to the canoes by a woman (a headman’s wife or sister) it will be put into a basket and carried on her head. ;
350
DOBU—TECHNICALITIES OF KULA 351
II
After this ceremonial reception, the fleet disperses. As we remember from Chapter II, the villages in Dobu are not built in compact blocks of houses, but scattered in hamlets, each of about a dozen huts. The fleet now sails along theshore, every canoe anchoring in front of the hamlet in which its toliwaga has his main partner.
We have at last arrived at the point when the real Kula has begun. So far, it was all preparations, and sailing with its concomitant adventure, and a little bit of preliminary Kula in the Amphletts. It was all full of excitement and emotion, pointing always towards the final goal, the big Kula in Dobu. Now we have at last reached the climax. The net result will be the acquisition of a few dirty, greasy, and insignificant looking native trinkets, each of them a string of flat, partly discoloured, partly raspberry-pink or brick-red discs, threaded one behind the other into a long, cylindrical roll. In the eyes of the natives, however, this result receives its meaning from the social forces of tradition and custom, which give the imprint of value to these objects, and surround them with a halo ofromance. It seems fit here to make these few reflections upon the native psychology on this point, and to attempt to grasp its real significance.
It may help us towards this understanding to reflect, that not far from the scenes of the Kula, large numbers of white adventurers have toiled and suffered, and many of them given their lives, in order to acquire what to the natives would appear
as insignificant and filthy as their bagi are to us—a few nuggets of gold. Nearer, even, in the very Trobriand Lagoon, there are found valuable pearls. In olden days, when the natives on opening a shell to eat it, found a waytuna, as they called it, a “seed ’ of the pearl shell, they would throw it to their children ‘to play with. Now they see a number of white men straining all their forces in competition to acquire as many of these worthless things as they can. The parallel is very close. In both cases, the conventionalised value attached to an object carries with it power, renown, and the pleasure of increasing them both. In the case of the white man, this is infinitely more complex and indirect, but not essentially different from that of the natives. If we would imagine that a great number of celebrated gems are let loose among us, and travel from hand
352 DOBU—TECHNICALITIES OF KULA
to hand—that Koh-i-noor and Orloff and other celebrated diamonds, emeralds and rubies—were on a continuous round tour, and to be obtained through luck, daring and enterprise, we would have a still closer analogy. Even though the posses- sion of them would be a short and temporary one, the renown of having possessed them and the mania of ‘ collectioneering ’ would add its spur to the lust for wealth.
This general, human, psychological foundation of the Kula must be kept constantly in mind. If we want, however, to understand its specific forms, we have to look for the details and technicalities of the transaction. A short outline of these has been given before in Chapter III. Here, after we have acquired a better knowledge of preliminaries, and a more thorough grasp of native psychology and custom, we shall be more ready to enter into a detailed description.
The main principle of the Kula exchange has been laid down in the before-mentioned chapter; the Kula exchange has always to be a gift, followed by a counter-gift ; it can never be a barter, a direct exchange with assessment of equivalents and with haggling. There must be always in the Kula two transactions, distinct in name, in nature and in time. The exchange is opened by an initial or opening gift called vaga, and closed by a final or return present called yotsle. They are both ceremonial gifts, they have to be accompanied by the blow of a conch shell, and the present is given ostentatiously and in public. The native term “ to throw ’’ a valuable describes well the nature of the act. For, though the valuable has to be handed over by the giver, the receiver hardly takes any notice of it, and seldom receives it actually into his hands. The etiquette of the transaction requires that the gift should be given in an off-hand, abrupt, almost angry manner, and received with equivalent nochalance and disdain. A slight modification in this is introduced when, as it happens sometimes, in the Trobriands, and in the Trobriands only, the vaygw’a is given by a chief to a commoner, in which case the commoner would take. it into his hand, and show some appreciation of it. In all other cases, the valuable would be placed within the reach of the receiver, and an insignificant member of his following would pick it up.
It is not very easy to unravel the various motives which combine to make up this customary behaviour on receiving and
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giving a gift. The part played by the receiver is perhaps not so difficult to interpret. Right through their ceremonial and commercial give and take, there runs the crude and funda- mental human dissatisfaction with the value received. A native will always, when speaking about a transaction, insist on the magnitude and value of the gift he gave, and minimise those of the equivalent accepted. Side by side with this, there is the essential native reluctance to appear in want of anything, a reluctance which is most pronounced in the case of food, as we have said before (Chapter VI, Division IV). Both these motives combine to produce the, after all, very human and understandable attitude of disdain at the reception of a gift. In the case of the donor, the histrionic anger with which he gives an object might be, in the first place, a direct expression of the natural human dislike of parting with a possession. Added to this, there is the attempt to enhance the apparent value of the gift by showing what a wrench it is to give it away. This is the interpretation of the etiquette in giving and taking at which I have arrived after many observations of native behaviour, and through many conversations and casual remarks of the natives.
The two gifts of the Kula are also distinct in time. It is quite obvious this must be so in the case of an overseas expedi- tion of an uvalaku type, on which no valuables whatever are taken with them by the visiting party, and so, any valuable received on such an occasion, whether as vaga or yotile, cannot therefore be exchanged at the same time. But even when the exchange takes place in the same village during an inland Kula, there must be an interval between the two gifts, of a few minutes at least.
There are also deep differences in the nature of the two gifts. The vaga, as the opening gift of the exchange, has to be given spontaneously, that is, there is no enforcement of any duty in giving it. There are means of soliciting it, (wawoyla), but no pressure can be employed. The yottle, however, that is, the valuable which is given in return for the valuable previously received, is given under pressure of a certain obligation. If I have given a vaga (opening gift of valuable) to a partner of mine, let us say a year ago, and now, when on a visit, I find that he has an equivalent vaygu’a, I shall consider it his duty
to give it tome. If he does not do so, I am angry with him,
354 DOBU—TECHNICALITIES OF KULA
and justified in being so. Not only that, if I can by any chance lay my hand on his vaygu’a and carry if off by force (/ebu), 1 am entitled by custom to do this, although my partner in that case may become very irate. The quarrel over that would again be half histrionic, half real.
Another difference between a vaga and a yottle occurs in overseas expeditions which are not uvalaku. On such expe- ditions, valuables sometimes are carried, but only such as are due already for a past vaga, and are to be given as yoitle. Opening gifts, vaga, are never taken overseas.
As mentioned above, the vaga, entails more wooing or soliciting than the yotile. This process, called by the natives wawoyla, consists, among others of a series of solicitary gifts. One type of such gifts is called pokala, and consists of food.* In the myth of Kasabwaybwayreta, narrated in Chapter XII, this type of gift was mentioned. As a rule, a considerable amount of food is taken on an expedition, and when a good valuable is known to be in the possession of a man, some of this food will be presented to him, with the words: “I pokala your valuable ; give it to me.’’ If the owner is not inclined to part with his valuable, he will not accept the pokala. If accepted, it is an intimation that the vaygw’a will sooner or later be given to the man who offers the pokala. The owner, however, may not be prepared to part with it at once, and may wish to receive more solicitary gifts.
Another type of such a gift is called kaributu, and consists of a valuable which, as a rule, is not one of those which are regularly kulaed. Thus, a small polished axe blade, or a valuable belt is given with the words: “I kaributu your neck- lace (or armshells) ; I shall take it and carry it off’’ This gift again may only be accepted if there is an intention to satisfy the giver with the desired vaygu’a. A very famous and great valuable will often be solicited by gift of pokala and of kaributu, one following the other. If, after one or two of such solicitory gifts, the big vaygu’a is finally given, the satisfied receiver will often give some more food to his partner, which gift is called kwaypolu.
The food gifts would be returned on a similar occasion if it arises. But there would be no strict equivalence in the
* It will be noted, that this is the third meaning in which the term pokala is used by the natives. (Cf. Chapter VI, Division VI.)
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natter of food. The kaributu gift of a valuable, however, would always have to be returned later on, in an equivalent ‘orm. It may be added that the pokala offerings of food would ne most often given from a district, where food is more abundant than in the district to which it is carried. Thus, the Sinaketans would bring pokala to the Amphletts, but they would seldom or never pokala the Dobuans, who are very rich in food. Again, within the Trobriands, a pokala would be offered from the Northern agricultural district of Kiriwina to men of Sinaketa, but not inversely.
Another peculiar type of gift connected with the Kula is called korotomna. After a Sinaketan has given a necklace to a man of Kiriwina, and this latter receives a minor valuable from his partner further East, this minor valuable will be given to the Sinaketan as the korotomna of his necklace. This gift usually consists of a lime spatula of whalebone ornamented with spondylus discs, and it has to be repaid.
It must be noted that all these expressions are given in the language of the Trobriands, and they refer to the gifts exchanged between the Northern and Southern Trobriands on the one hand, and these latter and the Amphletts on the other. In an overseas expedition from Sinaketa to Dobu, the solicitary gifts would be rather given wholesale, as the visitors’ gifts of part, and the subtle distinctions in name and in technicality would not be observed. That this must be so becomes clear, if we realise that, whereas, between the Northern and Southern Tronbriands the news about an exceptionally good valuable spreads easily and quickly, this is not the case between Dobu and Boyowa. Going over to Dobu, therefore, a man has to make up his mind, whether he will give any solicitory presents to his partner, what and how much he will give him, without knowing whether he has any specially fine valuables to expect from him or not. If, however, there was any exceptionally valuable gift in the visitors’ part, it will have to be returned later on by the Dobuans.
Another important type of gift essential to the Kula is that of the intermediary gifts, called bast. Let us imagine that a Sinaketan man has given a very fine pair of armshells to his Dobuan partner at their last meeting in Sinaketa. Now, arriving in Dobu, he finds that his partner has not got any necklace equivalent in value to the armshells given. He none
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the less will expect his partner to give him meanwhile a neck- lace, even though it be of inferior value. Such a gift is a bast, that is, not a return of the highly valuable vaga, but a gift given to fillin the gap. This bast will have to be repaid by a small equivalent pair of armshells at a later date. And the Dobuan on his side has still to repay the big armshells he received, and for which he has as yet got no equivalent in his possession. As soon as this is obtained, it will be given, and will close the trans- action as a clinching gift, or kudu. Both these names imply figures of speech. Kudu means ‘ tooth,’ and is a good name for a gift which clinches or bites. Basi means to pierce, or to stab, and this is the literal translation of a native comment on this name :
“We say basi, ‘for it does not truly bite, like a kudu (tooth) ; it just basi (pierces) the surface; makes it lighter.”
The equivalence of the two gifts, vaga and yotile, is expressed by the word kudu (tooth) and bigeda (it will bite). Another figure of speech describing the equivalence is contained in the word va’t, to marry. When two of the opposite valuables meet in the Kula and are exchanged, it is said that these two have married. ‘he armshells are conceived as a female prin- ciple, and the necklaces as the male. An interesting comment on these ideas was given to me by one of the informants. As mentioned above, a gift of food is never given from Sinaketa to Kiriwina, obviously because it would be a case of bringing coals to Newcastle. When I asked why this is so, I received the answer :
“We do not now kwaypolu or pokala the mwalt, for they are women, and there is no reason to kwaypolu or pokala them.”
There is little logic in this comment, but it evidently. includes some idea about the smaller value of the female principle. Or else perhaps it refers to the fundamental idea of the married status, namely that it is for the woman’s family to provide the man with food.
The idea of equivalence in the Kula transaction is very strong and definite, and when the receiver is not satisfied with the yottile (return gift) he will violently complain that it is not a
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proper ‘ tooth’ (kudu) for his opening gift, that it is not a real ‘marriage,’ that it is not properly ‘ bitten.’
These terms, given in the Kiriwinian language, cover about half of the Kula ring from Woodlark Island and even further East, from Nada (Loughlan Islands) as far as the Southern Trobriands. In the language of Dobu, the same word is used for vaga and basi, while yottle is pronounced yotura, and kudu is udu. The same terms are used in the Amphletts.
So much abont the actual regulations of the Kula transac- tions. With regard to the further genera! rules, the definition of Kula-partnership and sociology has been discussed in detail in Chapter XI. As to the rule that the valuables have always to travel and never to stop, nothing has to be added to what has been said about this in Chapter III, for there are no exceptions to this rule. A few more words must be said on the subject of the valuables used in the Kula. I said in Chapter III, stating the case briefly, that in one direction travel the armshells, whilst in the opposite, following the hands of the clock, travel the necklaces. It must now be added that the mwali—armshells—are accompanied by another article, the doga, or circular boar’s tusks. In olden days, the doga were almost as important as the mwali in the stream of the Kula. Nowadays, hardly any at all are to be met as Kula articles. It is not easy to explain the reason for this change. In an institu- tion having the importance and traditional tenacity which we find in the Kula, there can be no question of the interference of fashion to bring about changes. The only reason which I can suggest is that nowadays, with immensely increased inter- tribal intercourse, there is a great drainage on all Kula valuables by other districts lying outside the Kula. Now, on the one hand the doga are extremely valued on the main-land of New Guinea, much more, I assume, than they are within the Kula district. The drainage therefore would affect the doga much more strongly than any other articles, one of which, the spondylus necklaces, are actually imported into the Kula region from without, and even manufactured by white men in considerable quantities for native consumption. The armshells are produced within the district in sufficient numbers to replace any leakage, but doga are extremely difficult to reproduce as they are connected with a rare freak of nature—a boar with a circular tusk.
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One more article which travels in the same direction as the mwalt, consists of the bosu, the big lime spatule made of whale-bone and decorated with spondylus shells. They are not strictly speaking Kula articles, but play a part as the korotomna gifts mentioned above and nowadays are hardly to be met with. With the necklaces, there travel only as an unimportant sub- sidiary Kula article, belts made of the same red spondylus shell. They would be given as return presents for small armshells, as bast, etc. :
There is one important exception in the respective move- ments of necklace and armshell. A certain type of spondylus shell strings, much bigger and coarser than the strings which are used in the Kula, are produced in Sinaketa, as we saw in the last Chapter. These strings, called katudababile in Kiriwinian, © or sama’upa in Dobuan, are sometimes exported from Sinaketa to Dobu as Kula gifts, and function therefore as armshells. These katudababile, however, never complete the Kula ring, in the wrong direction, as they never return to the Trobriands from the East. Part of them are absorbed into the districts outside the Kula, part of them come back again to Sinaketa, and join the other necklaces in their circular movement.
Another class of articles, which often take a subsidiary part in the Kula exchange, consists of the large and thin polished axe blades, called in the Kiriwinian language beku. They are never used for any practical purposes, and fulfil only the function of tokens of wealth and objects of parade. In the Kula they would be given as kaributu (solicitary gifts), and would go both ways. As they are quarried in Woodlark Island and polished in Kiriwina, they would, however, move in the direction from the Trobriands to Dobu more frequently than in the opposite one.
To summarise this subject, it may be said that the proper Kula articles are on the one hand, the armshells (mwalz), and the curved tusks (doga) ; and, on the other hand, the fine, long necklaces (soulava or bagi), of which there are many sub-classes. An index of the special position of these three articles is that they are the only ones, or at least, by far the most important ones, mentioned in the spells. Later on, I shall enumerate all the sub-classes and varieties of these articles.
Although, as we have seen, there is both a good deal of ceremony attached to the transaction and a good deal of
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decorum, one might even say commercial honour, implied in the technicalities of the exchange, there is much room left as well for quarrelling and friction. Ifa man obtains a very fine valuable, which he is not already under an obligation to offer as yotile (return payment), there will be a number of his partners, who will compete to receive it. As only one can be successful, all the others will be thwarted and more or less offended and full of malice. Still more room for bad blood is left in the matter of equivalence. As the valuables exchanged cannot be measured or even compared with one another by an exact standard ; as there are no definite correspondences or indices of correlation between the various kinds of the valuables, it is not easy to satisfy a man who has given a vaygu’a of high value. On receiving a repayment (yotile), which he does not consider equivalent, he will not actually make a scene about it, or even show his displeasure openly in the act. But he will feel a deep resentment, which will express itself in frequent recriminations and abuse. These, though not made to his partner’s face, will reach his ears sooner or later. Eventually, the universal method of settling differences may be resorted to—that of black magic, and a sorcerer wiil be paid to cast some evil spell over the offending party.
When speaking about some celebrated vaygu’a, a native will praise its value in the words: ‘“‘ Many men died because of it ’’—which does not mean that they died in battle or fight, but were killed by black magic. Again, there is a system of signs by which one can recognise, on inspecting the corpse the day after death, for what reasons it has been bewitched. Among these signs there are one or two which mean that the man has been done away with, because of his success in Kula, or because he has offended somebody in connection with it. The mixture of punctilio and decorum, on the one hand, with passionate resentment and greed on the other, must be realised as under- lying all the transactions, and giving the leading psychological tone to the natives’ interest. The obligation of fairness and decency is based on the general rule, that it is highly improper and dishonourable to be mean. Thus, though a man will generally strive to belittle the thing received, it must not be forgotten that the man who gave it was genuinely eager to do his best. And after all, in some cases when a man receives a really fine valuable, he will boast of it and be frankly satisfied.
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Such a success is attributed of course not to his partner’s generosity, but to his own magic.
A feature which is universally recognised as reprehensible and discreditable, is a tendency to retain a number of valuables and be slow in passing them on. A man who did this would be called “‘ hard in the Kula.” The following is a native description of this feature as exhibited by the natives of the Amphletts.
“ The Gumasila, their Kula is very hard ; they are mean, they are retentive. They would like to take hold of one soulava, of two, of three big ones, of four perhaps. A man would pokala them, he would pokapokala ; if he is a kins- man he will get a soulava. The Kayleula only, and the Gumasila are mean. The Dobu, the Du’a’u, the Kitava are good. Coming to Muyuwa—they are like Gumasila.”’
This means that a man in Gumasila would let a number of necklaces accumulate in his possession ; would require plenty of food as pokala—a characteristic reduplication describes the insistance and perseverance in pokala—and even then he would give a necklace to a kinsman only. When I inquired from the same informant whether such a mean man would also run a risk of being killed by sorcery, he answered :
“A man, who is very much ahead in the Kula—he will die—the mean man not ; he will sit in peace.
Ill
Returning now to the concrete proceedings of the Kula, let us follow the movements of a Sinaketan toliwaga. He has pre- sumably received a necklace or two on his arrival; but he has more partners and he expects more valuables. Before he receives his fill, he has to keep a taboo. He may not partake of any local food, neither yams, nor coco-nuts, nor betel pepper ornut. According to their belief, if he transgressed this taboo he would not receive any more valuables. He tries also to soften the heart of his partner by feigning disease. He will remain in his canoe and send word that he is ill. The Dobu man will know what such a conventional disease means. None the less, he may yield to this mode of persuasion. If this ruse does not succeed, the man may have recourse to magic. There is a formula called kwoygapani or ‘ enmeshing magic,’
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which seduces the mind of a man on whom it is practised, makes him silly, and thus amenable to persuasion. The formula is recited over a betel-nut or two, and these are given to the partner and to his wife or sister.
KWOYGAPANI SPELL
““O kwega leaf; O friendly kwega leaf; O kwega leaf hither ; O kwega leaf thither ! ”’
“T shall enter through the mouth of the woman of Dobu ; I shall come out through the mouth of the man of Dobu. I shall enter through the mouth of the man of Dobu ; I shall come out through the mouth of the woman of Dobu.”
““ Seducing kwega leaf ; enmeshing kwega leaf ; the mind of the woman,of Dobu is seduced by the kwega leaf, is enmeshed by the kwega leaf.”
The expression “‘ is seduced,” ‘“‘is enmeshed ’”’ by the kwega leaf, is repeated with a string of words such as: “ Thy mind, O man of Dobu,” “ thy refusal, O woman of Dobu,” “‘ Thy disinclination, O woman of Dobu,” “ Thy bowels, thy tongue, thy liver,” going thus over all the organs of understanding and feeling, and over the words which describe these faculties. The last part is identical with that of one or two formule previously quoted :
“No more it is my mother; my mother art thou, O woman of Dobu, etc.’”’ (Compare the Kaykakaya and Ka’ubana’i spells of the previous chapter.)
Kwega is a plant, probably belonging to the same family as betel pepper, and its leaves are chewed with areca-nut and lime, when real betel-pods (mwayye) are not available. The kwega is, remarkably enough, invoked in more than one magical formula, instead of the real betel-pod. The middle part is quite clear. In it, the seducing and enmeshing power of the kwega is cast over all the mental faculties of the Dobuan, and on the anatomical seats of these faculties. After the application of this magic, all the resources of the soliciting man are ex- hausted. He has to give up hope, and take to eating the fruit of Dobu, as his taboo lapses.
Side by side with the Kula, the subsidiary exchange of ordinary goods takes place. In Chapter VI, Division VI, we have classified the various types of give and take, as they are to be found in the Trobriand Islands. The inter-tribal trans- actions which now take place in Dobu also fit into that scheme
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The Kula itself belongs to class (6), ‘ Ceremonial Barter with deferred payment.’ The offering of the pari, of landing gifts by the visitors, returned by the talo’i or farewell gifts from the hosts fall into the class (4) of presents more or less equivalent. Finally, between the visitors and the local people there takes place, also, barter pure and simple (gimwali). Between partners, however, there is never a direct exchange of the gimwalt type. The local man will as a rule contribute a bigger present, for the ¢alo’1 always exceeds the pari in quantity and value, and small presents are also given to the visitors during theirstay. Ofcourse, ifin the pari there were included gifts of high value, like a stone blade or a good lime spoon, such solicitary gifts would always be returned in strictly equivalent form. The rest would be liberally exceeded in value.
The trade takes place between the visitors and local natives, who are not their partners, but who must belong to the com- munity with whom the Kula is made. Thus, Numanuma, Tu’utauna and Bwayowa are the three communities which form what we have called the ‘Kula community’ or ‘Kula unit,’ with whom the Sinaketans stand in the relation of partner- ship. Anda Sinaketa man will gimwali (trade) only with a man from one of these villages who is not his personal partner. To use a native statement :
“Some of our goods we give in part ; some we keep back ; later on, we gimwaliit. They bring their areca-nut, their sago, they put it down. They want some article of ours, they say : ‘I want this stone blade.’ We give it, we put the betel-nut, the sago into ourcanoe. If they give us, however, a not sufficient quantity, we rate them. Then they bring more.”
This is a clear definition of the gimwali, with haggling and adjustment of equivalence in the act:
When the visiting party from Sinaketa arrive, the natives from the neighbouring districts, that is, from the small island of Dobu proper, from the other side of Dawson Straits, from Deyde’i, the village to the South, will assemble in the three Kula villages. These natives from other districts bring with them a certain amount of goods. But they must not trade directly with the visitors from Boyowa. They must exchange their goods with the local natives, and these again will trade them with the Sinaketans. Thus the hosts from the Kula
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community act as intermediaries in any trading relations between the Sinaketans and the inhabitants of more remote districts.
To sum up the sociology of these transactions, we may say that the visitor enters into a threefold relation with the Dobuan natives. First, there is his partner, with whom he exchanges general gifts on the basis of free give and take, a type of transaction, running side by side with the Kula proper. Then there is the local resident, not his personal Kula partner, with whom he carries on gimwali. Finally there is the stranger with whom an indirect exchange is carried on through the intermediation of the local men. With all this, it must not be imagined that the commercial aspect of the gathering is at all conspicuous. The concourse of the natives is great, mainly owing to their curiosity, to see the ceremonial reception of the uvalaku party. But if I say that every visitor from Boyowa, brings and carries away about half-a-dozen articles, I do not under-state the case. Some of these articles the Sinaketan has acquired in the industrial districts of Boyowa during his pre- liminary trading expedition (see Chapter VI, Division III). On these he scores a definite gain. A few samples of the prices paid in Boyowa and those received in Dobu will indicate the amount of this gain.
Kuboma to Sinaketa. Dobu to Sinaketa.
1 tanepopo basket = 12 coco-nuts =12 coco-nuts + sago -+ I belt I comb = 4coco-nuts = 4coco-nuts +. 1 bunch of betel I armlet = 8coco-nuts = 8 coco-nuts + 2 bundles of betel I lime pot = 12 coco-nuts =12 coco-nuts + 2 pieces of sago
This table shows in its second column the prices paid by the Sinaketans to the industrial villages of Kuboma, a district in the Northern Trobriands. In the third column what they receive in Dobu is recorded. The table has been obtained from a Sinaketan informant, and it probably is far from accurate, and the transactions are sure to vary greatly in the gain which they afford. There is no doubt, however, that for
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each article, the Sinaketan would ask the price which he paid for them as well as some extra article.
Thus we see that there is in this transaction a definite gain obtained by the middlemen. The natives of Sinaketa act as intermediaries between the industrial centres of the Trobriands and Dobu, whereas their hosts play the same réle between the Sinaketans and the men from the outlying districts.
Besides trading and obtaining of Kula valuables, the natives — of Sinaketa visit their friends and their distant relatives, who, as. we saw before, are to be found in this district owing to migrations. The visitors walk across the flat, fertile plain from one hamlet to the other, enjoying some of the marvellous ~ and unknown sights of this district. They are shown the hot — springs of Numanuma and of Deyde’i, which are in constant eruption. Every few minutes, the water boils up in one spring after another of each group, throwing up jets of spray a few metres high. The plain around these springs is barren, with nothing but here and there a stunted kind of eucalyptus tree. This is the only place in the whole of Eastern New Guinea where as far as I know, eucalyptus trees are to be found. This was at least the information of some intelligent natives, in whose company I visited the springs, and who had travelled all over the Eastern islands and the East end of the mainland.
The land-locked bays and lagoons, the Northern end of Dawson Strait, enclosed like a lake by mountains and volcanic cones, all this must also appear strange and beautiful to the Trobrianders. In the villages, they are entertained by their male friends, the language spoken by both parties being that of Dobu, which differs completely from Kiriwinian, but which the Sinaketans learn in early youth. It is remarkable that no one in Dobu speaks Kiriwinian.
As said above, no sexual relations of any description take place between the visitors and the women of Dobu. As one of the informants told me:
“We do not sleep with women of Dobu, for Dobu is the final mountain (Koyaviguna Dobu); it is a taboo of the mwasila magic.”
But when I enquired, whether the results of breaking this taboo would be baneful to their success in Kula only, the reply was that they were afraid of breaking it, and that it was
DOBU—TECHNICALITIES OF KULA 365
ordained of old (tokunabogwo aygurt) that no man should inter- fere with the women of Dobu. As a matter of fact, the Sinaketans are altogether afraid of the Dobuans, and they would take good care not to offend them in any way.
After some three or four days’ sojourn in Dobu, the Sinaketan fleet starts on its return journey. There is no special ceremony of farewell. In the early morning, they receive their taio’t (farewell gifts) of food, betel-nut, objects of use and sometimes also a Kula valuable is enclosed amongst the the ¢alo’i. Heavily laden as they are, they lighten their canoes by means of a magic called kaylupa, and sail away northwards once more.