„This is a vaga (opening gift)! In due time, I shall make a uvalaku to Dobu; thou shalt return to me a big soulava (necklace) as kudu (equivalent gift) for this. Plenty more armshells thou wilt receive now. There are plenty of armshells in Sinaketa. We know there were plenty of armshells in Vakuta. By and by thou and thy usagelu come ashore, I shall catch a pig. I shall give you plenty of food, coco-nuts, betel-nut, sugar cane, bananas!”
As soon as he was back on the shore, his wife, the eldest one, with a peta basket on her head, containing a pair of armshells, went into the water and carried it to Kauyaporu’s canoe, the boy with the conch shell following her also. After that, conch shells were blown on all sides on the shore, and single men or groups detached themselves from the rest, and waded towards the canoes. The mwali were carried with ceremony on sticks or in outstretched arm. But the grossly exaggerated way of putting one pair of armshells into a basket which was big enough to hold some four score, was only done by the chief’s wife. All this lasted for perhaps half-an-hour, while the setting sun poured down its glowing light on the painted canoes, the yeJlow beach, and the lively bronze forms moving upon it. Then, in a few moments the Dobuan canoes were partly beached, partly moored, whilst their crews spread over the seven villages of Sinaketa. Large groups could be seen sitting on platforms chewing betel nut and conversing in Dobuan with their hosts (see Plate LVI).
For three days, the Dobuans remained in Sinaketa. Every now and then, blasts of conch shell announced that a Kula transaction had taken place, that is, that a pair of armshells had been handed over to one of the visitors. Swarms of people from the other districts had assembled in Sinaketa; every day, natives from the inland villages of Southern Boyowa crowded into their capital, whilst people from Kuboma, Luba, and Kiriwina, that is, the Central and Northern districts, were camping in their relatives’ houses, in yam stores and under provisional shelters. Reckoning that the number of the visitors, that is, the Dobuans, the Amphlettans and the Vakutans, who had joined them on their way, amounted to some eight hundred; that the Sinaketans numbered about five hundred people, and that some twelve hundred had come from the other villages, it will be seen that the crowd in and about Sinaketa was considerable, numbering over two thousand.
The Trobriand natives, of course, looked after their own provisions. The Dobuans had also brought a considerable amount of food with them, and would receive some additional vegetables and pigs’ flesh from their hosts, while they acquired fish from some of the other villages of Boyowa. As a matter of fact, stingaree, shark and some other fish are the only articles for which the Dobuans barter on their own account. The rest of the trade, in the same way as is done in Dobu by the Sinaketans, must be done with the community who receive visitors, that is, with Sinaketa. The Sinaketans buy from the manufacturing districts of Boyowa the same industrial products that they take with them to Dobu, that is baskets, lime pots, lime spatulae, etc. Then they sell these to the Dobuans in just the same manner and with the same profit as was described in Chapter XV. As has been said there also, a man of Sinaketa would never trade with his partner, but with some other Dobuan. Between the partners, only presents are exchanged. The gift offered by the Dobuans to the Sinaketans is called vata’i, and it differs only in name and not in its economic or sociological nature from the pari gift offered by the Boyowans to their overseas partners. The talo’i, or farewell gift offered to them is as a rule more substantial than the vata’i.
The Dobuans, during their stay in Sinaketa, lived on the beach or in their canoes (see Plates LIV and XX). Skilfully rigged up with canopies of golden mats covering parts of the craft, their painted hulls glowing in the sun against the green water, some of the canoes presented the spectacle of some gorgeously fantastic pleasure boat (see Plate LV). The natives waded about amongst them, making the Lagoon lively with movement, talk and laughter. Groups camped on the sea shore, boiling food in the large clay pots, smoking and chewing betel-nut. Big parties of Trobrianders walked among them, discreetly but curiously watching them. Women were not very conspicuous in the whole proceedings, nor did I hear any scandal about intrigues, although such may have taken place.
III
On the fourth day, conch shells were blown again in the morning, though on the last of the three days their sounds had almost died out. These were the signs of the departure. Food and small presents were brought to the canoes as talo’i, and a few mwali were given at the last, for which the conch shells were blown. Without any ceremony or farewell speeches, the Dobuan canoes sailed away, one after the other.
Their journey home was also interrupted by a customary halt for fishing, but this time for fish, not shell. Some of them stop on the beach of Muwa, but the bulk camp on a beach called Susuwa, half way between Sinaketa and Vakuta, where they catch the fish by means of a poisonous root, which they have brought for this purpose from home. This time, they remained three days in Susuwa and Muwa, and then sailed to Vakuta to receive there talo’i. Their further journey I could not trace step by step, but afterwards I heard that quickly, and without any accident, they had reached their homes.
Their tanarere on Sarubwoyna beach, that is, the competitive display of the yield, gave more or less the following results:
From Sinaketa they received 304 armshells.