Working the Kaloma Shell (I.)
The spondylus shell broken and made into roughly circular pieces by knocking all round; this is done by men.
Plate L (B)
Working the Kaloma Shell (II.)
Women grinding pieces of shell into flat discs. Each piece is inserted into a hole at the end of a wooden cylinder and ground on a flat sandstone.(See [Div. III].)
This spell the magician may utter once only, or he may repeat it several times on successive days. He fixes then the final date for the fishing expedition. On the evening before that date, the men perform some private magic, every one in his own house. The hammering stone, the gabila, which is always a binabina (it is a stone imported from the Koya), is charmed over. As a rule it is put on a piece of dried banana leaf with some red hibiscus blossoms and leaves or flowers of red colour. A formula is uttered over it, and the whole is then wrapped up in the banana leaf and kept there until it is used. This will make the stone a lucky one in hitting off many shells, and it will make the shells very red.
Another rite of private magic consists in charming a large mussel shell, with which, on the next morning, the body of the canoe will be scraped. This makes the sea clear, so that the diver may easily see and frequently find his spondylus shells.
Next morning the whole fleet starts on the expedition. Some food has been taken into the canoes, as the fishing usually lasts for a few days, the nights being spent on the beach of Nanoula. When the canoes arrive at a certain point, about half-way between Sinaketa and Nanoula, they all range themselves in a row. The canoe of the magician is at the right flank, and he medicates a bunch of red hibiscus flowers, some red croton leaves, and the leaves of the red-blossomed mangrove—red coloured substances being used to make the shell red, magically. Then, passing in front of all the other canoes, he rubs their prows with the bundle of leaves. After that, the canoes at both ends of the row begin to punt along, the row evolving into a circle, through which presently the canoe of the magician passes, punting along its diameter. At this place in the Lagoon, there is a small vatu (coral outcrop) called Vitukwayla’i. This is called the vatu of the baloma (spirits). At this vatu the magician’s canoe stops, and he orders some of its crew to dive down and here to begin the gathering of shells.