IX
I have given so far a short linguistic survey of the canoe spells, dealing first with their initial parts, u’ula, then with their main parts, tapwana, and lastly saying a few words about the dogina. In a still more summary manner, I shall give a short survey of the mwasila (Kula magic) spells, quoted or ment[...] in this book, beginning with the u’ula.
In the Yawarwpu spell (Chapter VII) we have the beginning:
Bu’a, bu’a, bovinaygau, vinaygu;
bu’a, bu’a, bomwanaygu, mwanaygu . . .
Here the word bu’a (areca-nut) is repeated and used as a bo-, with the antithetic roots -vinay- (female), and -mw[ana-] (male) and with the suffix -gu (first possessive pronoun).
The Kaymwaloyo (Chapter VII) begins:
Gala bu’a, gala doga, gala mwayye...
This is spoken in a solemn manner, and then follows the [...] the root mwase, described above in the free translation of spell.
Another rhythmic beginning, spoken with regular, str marked accent is to be found in the Kaykakaya spell (Chapter XIII):
Kaýtutúna iyanâ, márabwága iyanâ
Symmetrical arrangements of words, with alliterative fixing of a particle and with antithetic uses of word cc are to be found in several other spells.
The Talo formula (Chapter XIII) :
Talo, talo’udawada, udawada
Talo, talomwaylili, mwaylili...
The Ta’uya spell (Chapter XIII):
Mwanita, monimwanita;
Deriwa, baderideriwa;
Derima, baderiderima...
The Ka’ubana’i spell (Chapter XIII):
Mose’una Nikiniki,
Moga’ina Nikiniki...
The Kwoygapani spell (Chapter XIV):
Kwega, kweganubwa’i, nubwa’i;
Kwega, kweganuwa’i, nuwa’i;
Kwega, kweganuma ’i , numa’i...
I have written them down here without full commen[tary, to] show their formal phonetic characteristics, which are ind[eed in] all essentials quite similar to the samples previously q[uoted] and analysed.