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.
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 preliminary 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 + 1 belt
1 comb = 4 coco-nuts = 4 coco-nuts + 1 bunch of betel
1 armlet = 8 coco-nuts = 4 coco-nuts + 2 bundles of betel
1 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 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 role 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.