From Vakuta they received 344 armshells.
The total therefore was 648. As there were about sixty canoes making the proper uvalaku from Dobu, that is, not counting those from the Amphletts and Vakuta which joined on the way and appeared before Sinaketa, there were at the outside some five hundred Dobuan natives on that expedition. Out of these, however, not more than half were grown-up, Kula making men. So that, on the average, there were nearly thirteen armshells for every five men. Some would not get more than one pair, some perhaps even none, whilst the headmen received large quantities.
We shall follow in a later chapter the movements of some at least of those who had collected in Sinaketa from the other districts, in connection with the Kula. It did not take them more than a few days to disperse completely, and for the village to resume its ordinary aspect and routine.
[1] See the Author’s Memoir, “The Natives of Mailu” in Transactions of the R. Society of S. Australia for 1915, p. 598. [↑]