THE KULA IN DOBU--TECHNICALITIES OF THE EXCHANGE
I
In the last chapter, we spoke about the institution of gwara (mortuary
taboo) and of the threatening reception accorded to the visiting
party, at the time when it is laid upon the village, and when it has
to be lifted. When there is no gwara, and the arriving fleet are on an
uvalaku expedition, there will be a big and ceremonial welcome. The
canoes, as they approach, will range themselves in a long row facing
the shore. The point selected will be the beach, corresponding to a
hamlet where the main partner of the toli'uvalaku lives. The canoe of
the toli'uvalaku, of the master of the uvalaku expedition, will range
itself at the end of the row. The toli'uvalaku will get up on to the
platform and harangue the natives assembled on the beach. He will try
to appeal to their ambition, so that they might give the visitors a
large amount of valuables and surpass all other occasions. After that,
his partner on the shore will blow a conch-shell, and, wading through
the water, advance towards the canoe, and offer the first gift of
valuables to the master of the expedition. This may be followed by
another gift, again given to the toli'uvalaku. Other blasts then
follow, and men disengage themselves from the throng on the shore,
approaching the canoes with necklaces for their partners. A certain
order of seniority will be observed in this. The necklaces are always
carried ceremonially; as a rule they will be tied by both ends to
a stick, and carried hanging down, with the pendant at the bottom
(see Plate LXI). Sometimes, when a vaygu'a (valuable) is carried to
the canoes by a woman (a headman's wife or sister) it will be put
into a basket and carried on her head.
II
After this ceremonial reception, the fleet disperses. As we remember
from Chapter II, the villages in Dobu are not built in compact blocks
of houses, but scattered in hamlets, each of about a dozen huts. The
fleet now sails along the shore, every canoe anchoring in front of
the hamlet in which its toliwaga has his main partner.
We have at last arrived at the point when the real Kula has begun. So
far, it was all preparations, and sailing with its concomitant
adventure, and a little bit of preliminary Kula in the Amphletts. It
was all full of excitement and emotion, pointing always towards the
final goal, the big Kula in Dobu. Now we have at last reached the
climax. The net result will be the acquisition of a few dirty, greasy,
and insignificant looking native trinkets, each of them a string of
flat, partly discoloured, partly raspberry-pink or brick-red discs,
threaded one behind the other into a long, cylindrical roll. In the
eyes of the natives, however, this result receives its meaning from
the social forces of tradition and custom, which give the imprint of
value to these objects, and surround them with a halo of romance. It
seems fit here to make these few reflections upon the native psychology
on this point, and to attempt to grasp its real significance.
It may help us towards this understanding to reflect, that not far
from the scenes of the Kula, large numbers of white adventurers have
toiled and suffered, and many of them given their lives, in order to
acquire what to the natives would appear as insignificant and filthy
as their bagi are to us--a few nuggets of gold. Nearer, even, in
the very Trobriand Lagoon, there are found valuable pearls. In olden
days, when the natives on opening a shell to eat it, found a waytuna,
as they called it, a 'seed' of the pearl shell, they would throw it
to their children to play with. Now they see a number of white men
straining all their forces in competition to acquire as many of these
worthless things as they can. The parallel is very close. In both
cases, the conventionalised value attached to an object carries with
it power, renown, and the pleasure of increasing them both. In the
case of the white man, this is infinitely more complex and indirect,
but not essentially different from that of the natives. If we would
imagine that a great number of celebrated gems are let loose among us,
and travel from hand to hand--that Koh-i-noor and Orloff and other
celebrated diamonds, emeralds and rubies--were on a continuous round
tour, and to be obtained through luck, daring and enterprise, we would
have a still closer analogy. Even though the possession of them would
be a short and temporary one, the renown of having possessed them
and the mania of 'collectioneering' would add its spur to the lust
for wealth.
This general, human, psychological foundation of the Kula must be
kept constantly in mind. If we want, however, to understand its
specific forms, we have to look for the details and technicalities
of the transaction. A short outline of these has been given before
in Chapter III. Here, after we have acquired a better knowledge of
preliminaries, and a more thorough grasp of native psychology and
custom, we shall be more ready to enter into a detailed description.
The main principle of the Kula exchange has been laid down in the
before-mentioned chapter; the Kula exchange has always to be a gift,
followed by a counter-gift; it can never be a barter, a direct exchange
with assessment of equivalents and with haggling. There must be always
in the Kula two transactions, distinct in name, in nature and in
time. The exchange is opened by an initial or opening gift called vaga,
and closed by a final or return present called yotile. They are both
ceremonial gifts, they have to be accompanied by the blow of a conch
shell, and the present is given ostentatiously and in public. The
native term "to throw" a valuable describes well the nature of the
act. For, though the valuable has to be handed over by the giver,
the receiver hardly takes any notice of it, and seldom receives it
actually into his hands. The etiquette of the transaction requires
that the gift should be given in an off-hand, abrupt, almost angry
manner, and received with equivalent nonchalance and disdain. A slight
modification in this is introduced when, as it happens sometimes,
in the Trobriands, and in the Trobriands only, the vaygu'a is given
by a chief to a commoner, in which case the commoner would take it
into his hand, and show some appreciation of it. In all other cases,
the valuable would be placed within the reach of the receiver, and
an insignificant member of his following would pick it up.
It is not very easy to unravel the various motives which combine
to make up this customary behaviour on receiving and giving a
gift. The part played by the receiver is perhaps not so difficult
to interpret. Right through their ceremonial and commercial give
and take, there runs the crude and fundamental human dissatisfaction
with the value received. A native will always, when speaking about a
transaction, insist on the magnitude and value of the gift he gave,
and minimise those of the equivalent accepted. Side by side with this,
there is the essential native reluctance to appear in want of anything,
a reluctance which is most pronounced in the case of food, as we have
said before (Chapter VI, Division IV). Both these motives combine
to produce the, after all, very human and understandable attitude
of disdain at the reception of a gift. In the case of the donor, the
histrionic anger with which he gives an object might be, in the first
place, a direct expression of the natural human dislike of parting
with a possession. Added to this, there is the attempt to enhance the
apparent value of the gift by showing what a wrench it is to give it
away. This is the interpretation of the etiquette in giving and taking
at which I have arrived after many observations of native behaviour,
and through many conversations and casual remarks of the natives.
The two gifts of the Kula are also distinct in time. It is quite
obvious this must be so in the case of an overseas expedition of an
uvalaku type, on which no valuables whatever are taken with them
by the visiting party, and so, any valuable received on such an
occasion, whether as vaga or yotile, cannot therefore be exchanged
at the same time. But even when the exchange takes place in the same
village during an inland Kula, there must be an interval between the
two gifts, of a few minutes at least.
There are also deep differences in the nature of the two
gifts. The vaga, as the opening gift of the exchange, has to be
given spontaneously, that is, there is no enforcement of any duty
in giving it. There are means of soliciting it, (wawoyla), but no
pressure can be employed. The yotile, however, that is, the valuable
which is given in return for the valuable previously received, is
given under pressure of a certain obligation. If I have given a vaga
(opening gift of valuable) to a partner of mine, let us say a year ago,
and now, when on a visit, I find that he has an equivalent vaygu'a,
I shall consider it his duty to give it to me. If he does not do so,
I am angry with him, and justified in being so. Not only that, if I
can by any chance lay my hand on his vaygu'a and carry if off by force
(lebu), I am entitled by custom to do this, although my partner in
that case may become very irate. The quarrel over that would again
be half histrionic, half real.
Another difference between a vaga and a yotile occurs in overseas
expeditions which are not uvalaku. On such expeditions, valuables
sometimes are carried, but only such as are due already for a past
vaga, and are to be given as yotile. Opening gifts, vaga, are never
taken overseas.
As mentioned above, the vaga, entails more wooing or soliciting than
the yotile. This process, called by the natives wawoyla, consists,
among others of a series of solicitary gifts. One type of such
gifts is called pokala, and consists of food. [78] In the myth of
Kasabwaybwayreta, narrated in Chapter XII, this type of gift was
mentioned. As a rule, a considerable amount of food is taken on an
expedition, and when a good valuable is known to be in the possession
of a man, some of this food will be presented to him, with the words:
"I pokala your valuable; give it to me." If the owner is not inclined
to part with his Valuable, he will not accept the pokala. If accepted,
it is an intimation that the vaygu'a will sooner or later be given to
the man who offers the pokala. The owner, however, may not be prepared
to part with it at once, and may wish to receive more solicitary gifts.
Another type of such a gift is called kaributu, and consists of a
valuable which, as a rule, is not one of those which are regularly
kulaed. Thus, a small polished axe blade, or a valuable belt is given
with the words: "I kaributu your necklace (or armshells); I shall take
it and carry it off." This gift again may only be accepted if there
is an intention to satisfy the giver with the desired vaygu'a. A
very famous and great valuable will often be solicited by gift of
pokala and of kaributu, one following the other. If, after one or
two of such solicitory gifts, the big vaygu'a is finally given, the
satisfied receiver will often give some more food to his partner,
which gift is called kwaypolu.
The food gifts would be returned on a similar occasion if it
arises. But there would be no strict equivalence in the matter of
food. The kaributu gift of a valuable, however, would always have to
be returned later on, in an equivalent form. It may be added that the
pokala offerings of food would be most often given from a district,
where food is more abundant than in the district to which it is
carried. Thus, the Sinaketans would bring pokala to the Amphletts,
but they would seldom or never pokala the Dobuans, who are very rich
in food. Again, within the Trobriands, a pokala would be offered from
the Northern agricultural district of Kiriwina to men of Sinaketa,
but not inversely.
Another peculiar type of gift connected with the Kula is called
korotomna. After a Sinaketan has given a necklace to a man of Kiriwina,
and this latter receives a minor valuable from his partner further
East, this minor valuable will be given to the Sinaketan as the
korotomna of his necklace. This gift usually consists of a lime spatula
of whalebone ornamented with spondylus discs, and it has to be repaid.
It must be noted that all these expressions are given in the language
of the Trobriands, and they refer to the gifts exchanged between the
Northern and Southern Trobriands on the one hand, and these latter and
the Amphletts on the other. In an overseas expedition from Sinaketa
to Dobu, the solicitary gifts would be rather given wholesale, as
the visitors' gifts of pari, and the subtle distinctions in name
and in technicality would not be observed. That this must be so
becomes clear, if we realise that, whereas, between the Northern and
Southern Trobriands the news about an exceptionally good valuable
spreads easily and quickly, this is not the case between Dobu and
Boyowa. Going over to Dobu, therefore, a man has to make up his mind,
whether he will give any solicitory presents to his partner, what
and how much he will give him, without knowing whether he has any
specially fine valuables to expect from him or not. If, however,
there was any exceptionally valuable gift in the visitors' pari,
it will have to be returned later on by the Dobuans.
Another important type of gift essential to the Kula is that of the
intermediary gifts, called basi. Let us imagine that a Sinaketan man
has given a very fine pair of armshells to his Dobuan partner at their
last meeting in Sinaketa. Now, arriving in Dobu, he finds that his
partner has not got any necklace equivalent in value to the armshells
given. He none the less will expect his partner to give him meanwhile
a necklace, even though it be of inferior value. Such a gift is a basi,
that is, not a return of the highly valuable vaga, but a gift given to
fill in the gap. This basi will have to be repaid by a small equivalent
pair of armshells at a later date. And the Dobuan on his side has
still to repay the big armshells he received, and for which he has as
yet got no equivalent in his possession. As soon as this is obtained,
it will be given, and will close the transaction as a clinching gift,
or kudu. Both these names imply figures of speech. Kudu means 'tooth,'
and is a good name for a gift which clinches or bites. Basi means to
pierce, or to stab, and this is the literal translation of a native
comment on this name:
"We say basi, for it does not truly bite, like a kudu (tooth);
it just basi (pierces) the surface; makes it lighter."
The equivalence of the two gifts, vaga and yotile, is expressed by
the word kudu (tooth) and bigeda (it will bite). Another figure of
speech describing the equivalence is contained in the word va'i, to
marry. When two of the opposite valuables meet in the Kula and are
exchanged, it is said that these two have married. The armshells are
conceived as a female principle, and the necklaces as the male. An
interesting comment on these ideas was given to me by one of the
informants. As mentioned above, a gift of food is never given from
Sinaketa to Kiriwina, obviously because it would be a case of bringing
coals to Newcastle. When I asked why this is so, I received the answer:
"We do not now kwaypolu or pokala the mwali, for they are women,
and there is no reason to kwaypolu or pokala them."
There is little logic in this comment, but it evidently includes
some idea about the smaller value of the female principle. Or else
perhaps it refers to the fundamental idea of the married status,
namely that it is for the woman's family to provide the man with food.
The idea of equivalence in the Kula transaction is very strong and
definite, and when the receiver is not satisfied with the yotile
(return gift) he will violently complain that it is not a proper
'tooth' (kudu) for his opening gift, that it is not a real 'marriage,'
that it is not properly 'bitten.'
These terms, given in the Kiriwinian language, cover about half of
the Kula ring from Woodlark Island and even further East, from Nada
(Loughlan Islands) as far as the Southern Trobriands. In the language
of Dobu, the same word is used for vaga and basi, while yotile is
pronounced yotura, and kudu is udu. The same terms are used in the
Amphletts.
So much about the actual regulations of the Kula transactions. With
regard to the further general rules, the definition of Kula partnership
and sociology has been discussed in detail in Chapter XI. As to the
rule that the valuables have always to travel and never to stop,
nothing has to be added to what has been said about this in Chapter
III, for there are no exceptions to this rule. A few more words must
be said on the subject of the valuables used in the Kula. I said
in Chapter III, stating the case briefly, that in one direction
travel the armshells, whilst in the opposite, following the hands
of the clock, travel the necklaces. It must now be added that the
mwali--armshells--are accompanied by another article, the doga, or
circular boar's tusks. In olden days, the doga were almost as important
as the mwali in the stream of the Kula. Nowadays, hardly any at all are
to be met as Kula articles. It is not easy to explain the reason for
this change. In an institution having the importance and traditional
tenacity which we find in the Kula, there can be no question of the
interference of fashion to bring about changes. The only reason which
I can suggest is that nowadays, with immensely increased intertribal
intercourse, there is a great drainage on all Kula valuables by other
districts lying outside the Kula. Now, on the one hand the doga are
extremely valued on the main-land of New Guinea, much more, I assume,
than they are within the Kula district. The drainage therefore
would affect the doga much more strongly than any other articles,
one of which, the spondylus necklaces, are actually imported into
the Kula region from without, and even manufactured by white men in
considerable quantities for native consumption. The armshells are
produced within the district in sufficient numbers to replace any
leakage, but doga are extremely difficult to reproduce, as they are
connected with a rare freak of nature--a boar with a circular tusk.
One more article which travels in the same direction as the mwali,
consists of the bosu, the big lime spatulæ made of whale-bone and
decorated with spondylus shells. They are not strictly speaking Kula
articles, but play a part as the korotomna gifts mentioned above and
nowadays are hardly to be met with. With the necklaces, there travel
only as an unimportant subsidiary Kula article, belts made of the
same red spondylus shell. They would be given as return presents for
small armshells, as basi, etc.
There is one important exception in the respective movements of
necklace and armshell. A certain type of spondylus shell strings,
much bigger and coarser than the strings which are used in the Kula,
are produced in Sinaketa, as we saw in the last Chapter. These strings,
called katudababile in Kiriwinian, or sama'upa in Dobuan, are sometimes
exported from Sinaketa to Dobu as Kula gifts, and function therefore as
armshells. These katudababile, however, never complete the Kula ring,
in the wrong direction, as they never return to the Trobriands from
the East. Part of them are absorbed into the districts outside the
Kula, part of them come back again to Sinaketa, and join the other
necklaces in their circular movement.
Another class of articles, which often take a subsidiary part in the
Kula exchange, consists of the large and thin polished axe blades,
called in the Kiriwinian language beku. They are never used for any
practical purposes, and fulfil only the function of tokens of wealth
and objects of parade. In the Kula they would be given as kaributu
(solicitary gifts), and would go both ways. As they are quarried
in Woodlark Island and polished in Kiriwina, they would, however,
move in the direction from the Trobriands to Dobu more frequently
than in the opposite one.
To summarise this subject, it may be said that the proper Kula
articles are on the one hand, the armshells (mwali), and the curved
tusks (doga); and, on the other hand, the fine, long necklaces
(soulava or bagi), of which there are many sub-classes. An index of
the special position of these three articles is that they are the
only ones, or at least, by far the most important ones, mentioned
in the spells. Later on, I shall enumerate all the sub-classes and
varieties of these articles.
Although, as we have seen, there is both a good deal of ceremony
attached to the transaction and a good deal of decorum, one might even
say commercial honour, implied in the technicalities of the exchange,
there is much room left as well for quarrelling and friction. If
a man obtains a very fine valuable, which he is not already under
an obligation to offer as yotile (return payment), there will be a
number of his partners, who will compete to receive it. As only one
can be successful, all the others will be thwarted and more or less
offended and full of malice. Still more room for bad blood is left
in the matter of equivalence. As the valuables exchanged cannot be
measured or even compared with one another by an exact standard; as
there are no definite correspondences or indices of correlation between
the various kinds of the valuables, it is not easy to satisfy a man who
has given a vaygu'a of high value. On receiving a repayment (yotile),
which he does not consider equivalent, he will not actually make a
scene about it, or even show his displeasure openly in the act. But
he will feel a deep resentment, which will express itself in frequent
recriminations and abuse. These, though not made to his partner's face,
will reach his ears sooner or later. Eventually, the universal method
of settling differences may be resorted to--that of black magic, and a
sorcerer will be paid to cast some evil spell over the offending party.
When speaking about some celebrated vaygu'a, a native will praise
its value in the words: "Many men died because of it"--which does
not mean that they died in battle or fight, but were killed by black
magic. Again, there is a system of signs by which one can recognise,
on inspecting the corpse the day after death, for what reasons it
has been bewitched. Among these signs there are one or two which
mean that the man has been done away with, because of his success in
Kula, or because he has offended somebody in connection with it. The
mixture of punctilio and decorum, on the one hand, with passionate
resentment and greed on the other, must be realised as underlying all
the transactions, and giving the leading psychological tone to the
natives' interest. The obligation of fairness and decency is based
on the general rule, that it is highly improper and dishonourable
to be mean. Thus, though a man will generally strive to belittle
the thing received, it must not be forgotten that the man who gave
it was genuinely eager to do his best. And after all, in some cases
when a man receives a really fine valuable, he will boast of it and
be frankly satisfied. Such a success is attributed of course not to
his partner's generosity, but to his own magic.
A feature which is universally recognised as reprehensible and
discreditable, is a tendency to retain a number of valuables and be
slow in passing them on. A man who did this would be called "hard in
the Kula." The following is a native description of this feature as
exhibited by the natives of the Amphletts.
"The Gumasila, their Kula is very hard; they are mean, they are
retentive. They would like to take hold of one soulava, of two,
of three big ones, of four perhaps. A man would pokala them, he
would pokapokala; if he is a kinsman he will get a soulava. The
Kayleula only, and the Gumasila are mean. The Dobu, the Du'a'u,
the Kitava are good. Coming to Muyuwa--they are like Gumasila."
This means that a man in Gumasila would let a number of necklaces
accumulate in his possession; would require plenty of food as
pokala--a characteristic reduplication describes the insistence and
perseverance in pokala--and even then he would give a necklace to a
kinsman only. When I inquired from the same informant whether such a
mean man would also run a risk of being killed by sorcery, he answered
"A man who is very much ahead in the Kula--he will die--the mean
man not; he will sit in peace."
III
Returning now to the concrete proceedings of the Kula, let us follow
the movements of a Sinaketan toliwaga. He has presumably received a
necklace or two on his arrival; but he has more partners and he expects
more valuables. Before he receives his fill, he has to keep a taboo. He
may not partake of any local food, neither yams, nor coco-nuts, nor
betel pepper or nut. According to their belief, if he transgressed
this taboo he would not receive any more valuables. He tries also to
soften the heart of his partner by feigning disease. He will remain
in his canoe and send word that he is ill. The Dobu man will know
what such a conventional disease means. None the less, he may yield
to this mode of persuasion. If this ruse does not succeed, the man
may have recourse to magic. There is a formula called kwoygapani or
'enmeshing magic,' which seduces the mind of a man on whom it is
practised, makes him silly, and thus amenable to persuasion. The
formula is recited over a betel-nut or two, and these are given to
the partner and to his wife or sister.
KWOYGAPANI SPELL
"O kwega leaf; O friendly kwega leaf; O kwega leaf hither;
O kwega leaf thither!"
"I shall enter through the mouth of the woman of Dobu; I shall
come out through the mouth of the man of Dobu. I shall enter
through the mouth of the man of Dobu; I shall come out through
the mouth of the woman of Dobu."
"Seducing kwega leaf; enmeshing kwega leaf; the mind of the
woman of Dobu is seduced by the kwega leaf, is enmeshed by the
kwega leaf."
The expression "is seduced," "is enmeshed "by the kwega leaf,
is repeated with a string of words such as: "Thy mind, O man of
Dobu," "thy refusal, O woman of Dobu," "Thy disinclination, O
woman of Dobu," "Thy bowels, thy tongue, thy liver," going thus
over all the organs of understanding and feeling, and over the
words which describe these faculties. The last part is identical
with that of one or two formulæ previously quoted:
"No more it is my mother; my mother art thou, O woman of Dobu,
etc." (Compare the Kaykakaya and Ka'ubana'i spells of the previous
chapter.)
Kwega is a plant, probably belonging to the same family as betel
pepper, and its leaves are chewed with areca-nut and lime, when
real betel-pods (mwayye) are not available. The kwega is, remarkably
enough, invoked in more than one magical formula, instead of the real
betel-pod. The middle part is quite clear. In it, the seducing and
enmeshing power of the kwega is cast over all the mental faculties
of the Dobuan, and on the anatomical seats of these faculties. After
the application of this magic, all the resources of the soliciting
man are exhausted. He has to give up hope, and take to eating the
fruit of Dobu, as his taboo lapses.
Side by side with the Kula, the subsidiary exchange of ordinary goods
takes place. In Chapter VI, Division VI, we have classified the various
types of give and take, as they are to be found in the Trobriand
Islands. The inter-tribal transactions which now take place in Dobu
also fit into that scheme. The Kula itself belongs to class (6),
'Ceremonial Barter with deferred payment.' The offering of the pari,
of landing gifts by the visitors, returned by the talo'i or farewell
gifts from the hosts fall into the class (4) of presents more or less
equivalent. Finally, between the visitors and the local people there
takes place, also, barter pure and simple (gimwali). Between partners,
however, there is never a direct exchange of the gimwali type. The
local man will as a rule contribute a bigger present, for the talo'i
always exceeds the pari in quantity and value, and small presents are
also given to the visitors during their stay. Of course, if in the pari
there were included gifts of high value, like a stone blade or a good
lime spoon, such solicitary gifts would always be returned in strictly
equivalent form. The rest would be liberally exceeded in value.
The trade takes place between the visitors and local natives, who
are not their partners, but who must belong to the community with
whom the Kula is made. Thus, Numanuma, Tu'utauna and Bwayowa are the
three communities which form what we have called the 'Kula community'
or 'Kula unit,' with whom the Sinaketans stand in the relation of
partnership. And a Sinaketa man will gimwali (trade) only with a man
from one of these villages who is not his personal partner. To use
a native statement:
"Some of our goods we give in pari; some we keep back; later on,
we gimwali it. They bring their areca-nut, their sago, they put
it down. They want some article of ours, they say: 'I want this
stone blade.' We give it, we put the betel-nut, the sago into
our canoe. If they give us, however, a not sufficient quantity,
we rate them. Then they bring more."
This is a clear definition of the gimwali, with haggling and adjustment
of equivalence in the act.
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 = 8 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 rôle 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.
The land-locked bays and lagoons, the Northern end of Dawson Strait,
enclosed like a lake by mountains and volcanic cones, all this must
also appear strange and beautiful to the Trobrianders. In the villages,
they are entertained by their male friends, the language spoken by both
parties being that of Dobu, which differs completely from Kiriwinian,
but which the Sinaketans learn in early youth. It is remarkable that
no one in Dobu speaks Kiriwinian.
As said above, no sexual relations of any description take place
between the visitors and the women of Dobu. As one of the informants
told me:
"We do not sleep with women of Dobu, for Dobu is the final mountain
(Koyaviguna Dobu); it is a taboo of the mwasila magic."
But when I enquired, whether the results of breaking this taboo would
be baneful to their success in Kula only, the reply was that they were
afraid of breaking it, and that it was ordained of old (tokunabogwo
ayguri) that no man should interfere with the women of Dobu. As a
matter of fact, the Sinaketans are altogether afraid of the Dobuans,
and they would take good care not to offend them in any way.
After some three or four days' sojourn in Dobu, the Sinaketan
fleet starts on its return journey. There is no special ceremony of
farewell. In the early morning, they receive their talo'i (farewell
gifts) of food, betel-nut, objects of use and sometimes also a Kula
valuable is enclosed amongst the the talo'i. Heavily laden as they
are, they lighten their canoes by means of a magic called kaylupa,
and sail away northwards once more.