This beginning, full of archaic expressions, implicit meanings and allusions and personal names, is very obscure. The first words refer probably to the head-quarters of sorcery; Muruwa (or Murua — Woodlark Island), Iwa, Sewatupa. The long list of personal names following afterwards contains some mythical ones, like Kasabwaybwayreta, and some others, which I cannot explain, though the words Tobwebweso, Tauva’u, and Bo’abwa’u suggest that this is a list in which some sorcerers’ names figure. As a rule, in such spells, a list of names signifies that all those who have used and handed down this formula, are enumerated. In some cases the people mentioned are frankly mythical heroes. Sometimes a few mythical names are chanted, and then comes a string of actual people, forming a sort of pedigree of the spell. If these in this spell are ancestor names they all refer to mythical personalities, and not to real ancestors79. The last words contained an expression typical of the kayga’u. Then comes the middle part.
„I arise, I escape from bara’u; I arise, I escape from yoyova. I arise, I escape from mulukwausi. I arise, I escape from bowo’u” etc., repeating the leading words „I arise, I escape from” with the words used to describe the flying witches in the various surrounding districts. Thus the word bara’u comes from Muyuwa (Woodlark Island), where it describes the sorceress, and not, as in other Massim districts, a male sorcerer. The words yoyova, mulukwausi need no explanation. Bowo’u is an Amphlettan word. Words from Dobu, Tubetube, etc., follow. Then the whole period is repeated, adding „eyes of” in the middle of each phrase, so that it runs:
„I arise, I escape from the eyes of the bara’u. I arise, I escape from the eyes of the yoyova” etc. The leading words, „I arise, I escape from” are then replaced by „They wander astray” which, again, make way to „the sea is cleared off”. This whole middle part of the spell is clear, and needs no commentary. Then comes the concluding period (dogina):
„I am a manuderi (small bird), I am a kidikidi (small sea bird), I am a floating log, I am a piece of sea-weed; I shall produce mist till it encloses all, I shall befog, I shall shut off with fog. Mist, enveloped in mist, dissolving in mist am I. Clear is the sea, (the mulukwausi are) straying in mist”. This part also needs no special commentary.
This is again a long spell of the giyorokaywa type, that is, directed against the mulukwausi, and in this the spell is consistent, for the mulukwausi alone are invoked in the middle period.
After the spell has been chanted into the lime pot, this is well stoppered, and not opened till the end of the journey. It must be noted that these two giyorokaywa spells have been spoken by our toliwaga in the village or on Muwa beach, and in day time. For as said above, it is a taboo to utter them in the night or at sea. From the moment he has spoken these two spells, both medicated substances, the ginger root and the lime in the lime pot, remain near him. He has also in the canoe some stones of those brought from the Koya, and called binabina, in distinction to the dead coral, which is called dakuna. Over these stones, at the moment of the occurrence of danger, a spell of the Underneath, a giyotanawa will be recited. The following is a formula of this type, short as they always are.
Glyotanawa no. I (dakuna kayga’u)
„Man, bachelor, woman, young girl; woman, young girl, man, bachelor! Traces, traces obliterated by cobwebs; traces, obliterated by turning up (the material in which they were left); I press, I close down! Sharks of Dukutabuya, I press, I close down; Sharks of Kaduwaga, I press, I close down” etc., the sharks of Muwa, Galeya, Bonari, and Kaulokoki being invoked in turn. All these words are names of marked parts of the sea, in and around the Trobriand Lagoon. The formula ends up with the following peroration : „I press down thy neck, I open up thy passage of Kiyawa, I kick thee down, O shark. Duck down under water, shark. Die, shark, die away”.
The commentary to the opening sentences given by my informant, Molilakwa of Oburaku, was:
„This magic is taught to people when they are quite young. Hence the mention of young people.”