III
Returning now to the concrete proceedings of the Kula, let us follow the movements of a Sinaketan toliwaga. He has presumably 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 or nut. 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,’ 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!”
“I 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 formulæ 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 exhausted. 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 transactions which now take place in Dobu also fit into that scheme. 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 gimwali type. The local man will as a rule contribute a bigger present, for the talo’i always exceeds the pari in quantity and value, and small presents are also given to the visitors during their stay. Of course, if in 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 community 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 partnership. And a 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 pari; some we keep back; later on, we gimwali it. 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 our canoe. 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 community act as intermediaries in any trading relations between the Sinaketans and the inhabitants of more remote districts.