The subject of which this book treats and the material at our disposal

are nearly exhausted. In describing the Southern branch of the Kula

(between Sinaketa and Dobu) I entered into the details of its rules

and associated aspects, and almost all that was said there refers

to the Kula as a whole. In speaking of the N.E. branch of the Kula,

which I am now about to describe, there will not therefore be very

much new to tell. All the general rules of exchange and types of

behaviour are the same as those previously defined. Here we have also

big uvalaku expeditions and small, non-ceremonial sailings. The type

of partnership between Kiriwinians and Kitavans is the same here,

as the one obtaining within the Trobriands, and described in the

last chapter. For the natives of the Eastern islands, from Kitava to

Woodlark, have the same social organisation and the same culture as the

Trobrianders, and speak the same language with dialectical differences

only. Never any but friendly relations have obtained between them

and many people are united by bonds of real kinship across the seas,

for there have been migrations between the districts, and marriages

are also not infrequent. Thus the general relations between overseas

partners are different here from those between Sinaketa and Dobu. The

visiting is not associated with any deep apprehensions, there is no

ka'ubana'i (danger magic), and the relations between the visitors and

hosts are much more free and easy and intimate. The rest of the Kula

magic (except the ka'ubana'i) is identical With that in the South,

and indeed much of it, as used all over Boyowa, has been received

from the Kitavans. Many of the preliminary customs and arrangements

of the Kula, the preparation of the canoes, ceremonial launching and

kabigidoya are the same here. In fact, the launching described in

Chapter VI was the one I saw on the beach of Omarakana.

On the actual expeditions, much of the ceremonial and all the rules

of the Kula gifts, as well as of the pari and talo'i, the initial

and farewell presents, are the same as in the South-Western branch

of the Kula. The best plan will be to tell the story of a typical

uvalaku expedition from Kiriwina to Kitava, noting the similarities

and emphasising the differences, while one or two points of divergence

will claim our special attention. There is a small, but interesting

incident called youlawada, a custom which allows a visiting party

to attack and damage the house ornaments of a man, to whom they

bring a gift. Another important speciality of this Eastern Kula is

the association of a mortuary feast called so'i with particularly

abundant distributions of vaygu'a.

I had opportunities of collecting notes about the North-Eastern

Kula and of making observations during my residence in Omarakana,

in 1915-1916. I saw several expeditions from Kitava arrive on the

beach, and camp for a few days. To'uluwa went twice to Kitava, and

his return from one of these visits has been described in the last

chapter. He also once started for an expedition there, of which I

was a member. There was a change of wind, some time in September,

and with the North wind which we hoped would last for a few hours,

it would have been possible to cross to Kitava and to return at our

pleasure with the prevailing South-Easterly. Half-way to our goal,

the wind changed and we had to return, to my great disappointment,

though this gave me a good example of the entire dependence of

the natives on the weather. Unfortunately, To'uluwa got it into

his head that I had brought him bad luck, and so when he planned

his next trip, I was not taken into his confidence or allowed to

form one of the party. Two years later, when I lived in Oburaka,

about half-way between the Northern and Southernmost end of Boyowa,

several expeditions from Kitava visited Wawela, a village lying

across on the other side of the island, which here is no more than

a mile and a half wide; and one or two expeditions left from Wawela

for Kitava. The only big expedition which came under my notice was

the uvalaku which was to leave some time in April or May, 1916,

from Kiriwina to the East. I saw only the preparatory stages, of

which the launching was described in Chapter VII.

Let us imagine that we follow the course of this Kiriwinian

uvalaku. The first general intimation that it would take place, came

after one of the visits which To'ulawa made to Kitava. He had heard

there that a considerable quantity of armshells was soon to come to

the island, for, as we shall see by the end of this Chapter, such big,

concerted movements of valuables along the ring take place from time to

time. To'ulawa then and there made arrangements with his chief partner,

Kwaywaya, to make an uvalaku, which was to be the means of carrying on

the big movement of the mwali. On his return to Omarakana, when the

headmen of the other Kiriwinian villages assembled, the plans of the

uvalaku were talked over and details arranged. Even in olden days,

before the chief's power was undermined, though he used to take the

initiative, and give decisions in important matters, he had to put

the case before the other headmen, and listen to what they had to

say. Their opinions on the occasion of which we are speaking, would

hardly ever be in contradiction to his wishes, and it was decided

without much discussion to make the uvalaku in about six months'

time. Soon after, the rebuilding or refitting of the canoes began,

in the manner previously described. The only slight difference in the

preparations between Kiriwina and Sinaketa lies in the preliminary

trade. The Kiriwinians have to go inland to the industrial districts

of Kuboma, and they go there every man on his own account, to acquire

the articles needed.

It will be best to say here at once all that is necessary about

the trade between Kiriwina and Kitava. As these two districts

are geologically and in other respects much more similar to one

another than Sinaketa and Dobu are, the trade is not of such vital

importance, with one notable exception, as we shall see. The articles

of subsidiary trade, which a Kiriwinian expedition would carry with

them to Kitava, are the following:--wooden combs; various classes

of lime pots; armlets, plaited of fern fibre; turtle-shell earrings;

mussel shell; coils of lashing creeper (wayugo); plaited fern belts,

made originally in the d'Entrecasteaux. Of these articles, the most

important are probably the mussel shells, used for scraping and as

knives, the various kinds of lime pots, which are a speciality of

Kuboma, and last, but not least, the wayugo. I am not quite certain as

to whether this creeper is not to be found in Kitava, but as it grows

only on marshy soil, it is hardly probable that it would thrive on

a high, raised, coral island. In that case, the creeper is certainly

the most indispensable of all the trade articles imported into Kitava

from the Trobriands.

The Trobrianders import from the smaller islands a class of grass

skirt made of coco-nut leaves; exceptionally well finished urn-shaped

baskets; small hand-baskets; specially bleached pandanus mats;

ornaments made of fragments of conus shell; certain classes of cowrie

shell, used for ornamenting belts; ebony lime spatulæ; ebony walking

staves; sword-clubs carved in ebony; and an aromatic black paint, made

of charred sandal wood. None of these articles is of vital importance,

as all of them, though perhaps in slightly different or even inferior

quality, are manufactured or found in the Trobriands.

There was one article, however, which, in the olden days, was of

surpassing utility to the Trobriand natives, and which they could

obtain only from Kitava, though it came originally from further

East, from Murua (Woodlark Island). These were the kukumali, or

roughly shaped pieces of green-stone, which were then polished in

the Trobriands, and in this state used as stone implements, while

the biggest of them, very large and thin and well polished all over,

became a specially important class of vaygu'a (articles of high

value). Although the practical use of stone implements has naturally

been done away with by the introduction of steel and iron, the beku

(valuable axe blades) have still an undiminished, indeed, an increased

value, as the white traders have to use them for purchasing pearls

from the natives. It is important to note that although all the raw

material for these stone implements and valuables had to be imported

from Kitava, the finished valuables were and are re-exported again,

as Kiriwina is still the main polishing district.

As to the manner in which the trade was done between the Kiriwinians

and Kitavans, all that has been said previously on the subject of

inter-tribal trade holds good; part of the goods carried were given

as presents, part of them were exchanged with non-partners, some were

gifts received from the partners on leaving.

II

Returning to To'ulawa and his companions, as time went on there was

more and more stir in the villages. As usually, all sorts of ambitious

plans were framed, and the youthful members of the party hoped that

they would reach Muyuwa (or Murua, Woodlark Island) where Kula was

not done, but where Kiriwinian parties sometimes went in order to

witness certain festivities. On the subject of Muyuwa, Bagido'u,

the elderly heir apparent of Omarakana, who however, as said in the

previous chapter, will never succeed his uncle, had to tell his own

experiences. As a small boy, he sailed there with one of the big

chiefs of Omarakana, his maternal grandfather. They went to Suloga,

the place where the green stone was quarried.

"There," spoke Bagido'u, "there was a big dubwadebula (grotto or

rock shelf). The members of the Lukulabuta clan (this clan is

called Kulutalu in Muyuwa) of Suloga, were the toli (masters,

owners) of this dubwadebula, and could quarry the stone. They

knew some megwa (magic); they charmed their axe-blades, and hit

the walls of the dubwadebula. The kukumali (pieces of stone)

fell down. When the men of Boyowa came to Suloga, they gave pari

(presents) to the Lukulabuta men of Suloga. They gave them paya

(turtle shell), kwasi (armlets), sinata (combs). Then, the Suloga

men would show us the kukumali, and tell us: 'Take them with you,

take plenty.' Good kukumali, which could be made into a beku

(big wealth-blades) we would pay for; we would give our vaygu'a

(valuables) in exchange. At parting, they would give us more

kukumali as talo'i (farewell gift)."

It must be remembered, in comment on this narrative, that when Bagido'u

went to Suloga, some thirty or forty years ago, the iron and steel

had already long before rendered the small kukumali quite useless

and worthless to the natives, while the big kukumali had still their

full value, as material for the large blades which serve as tokens

of wealth. Hence, the big ones had still to be paid for, and hence

also the generous invitation to take as many of the small ones, as

they liked, an invitation of which the visitors, with corresponding

delicacy, refused to avail themselves. [84]

Another hero of the occasion was old Ibena, one of the Tabalu (members

of the highest rank) of Kasana'i, the sister village of Omarakana. He

has spent a long time on the island of Iwa, and knew the myths and

magic of the Eastern archipelago very well. He would sit down and tell

for hours various stories of famous Kula expeditions, of mythological

incidents, and of the peculiar customs of the Eastern islands. It was

from him that I first obtained my information about the mulukwausi

and their customs, about shipwreck and the means of saving the party,

about the love magic of Iwa, and many other facts, which only a man

of cosmopolitan experience and culture, like Ibena, would know and

understand thoroughly. He was a good informant, eager to instruct and

to display his wisdom and knowledge, and not devoid of imagination;

of the licentious and libidinous women of Kaytalugi (see Chapter X)

and of what a man has to suffer there, he would speak as if he had

been there himself. At this time, he was specially loquacious about

the Kula, and associated customs, inspired as he was by the hope of

re-visiting his old haunts, and by the admiration and reverence shown

to him by his listeners, myself included.

The other members of the audience were most interested in his accounts

of how they make gardens in Kitava, Iwa and Gawa; of the special

dances performed there, of the technicalities of Kula, and of the

great efficiency of the Iwan love magic.

At that time, I was able to obtain more information about the Kula,

and that more easily and in a shorter while, than I had, with strenuous

efforts, for months before. It is by taking advantage of such epochs,

when the interest of the natives is centred round a certain subject,

that ethnographic evidence can be collected in the easiest and most

reliable manner. Natives will willingly state customs and rules,

and they will also accurately and with interest follow up concrete

cases. Here, for instance, they would trace the way in which a given

pair of armshells had passed through the hands of several individuals,

and was now supposed to have come round again to Kitava--and in such

a way one receives from the natives definite ethnographic documents,

realities of thought, and details of belief, instead of forced

artificial verbiage.

I saw the proceedings as far as the ceremonial launching of the

chiefs' canoes in Kasana'i and Omarakana (cf. Chapter VI), when

the natives assembled in big numbers, and various festivities took

place. Afterwards when everything was ready for sailing, a similar

crowd gathered on the beach, though less numerous than the previous

one, for only the neighbouring villages were there instead of the whole

district. The chief addressed the crowd, enjoining strict taboos on

strangers entering the village while the men were away. Such taboos, on

the surface at least, are very carefully kept, as I had opportunities

to observe during the two previous absences of To'uluwa. Early in

the evening, everybody retired into his or her house, the outside

fires were extinguished and when I walked through the village, it was

quite deserted and except for a few old men specially keeping watch,

no one was to be seen. Strangers would be careful not to pass even

through the outskirts of the village after sunset, and would take

another road to avoid the grove of Omarakana.

Even men from the sister-village of Kasana'i were excluded from

entering the capital, and on one occasion when two or three of them

wanted to visit their friends, they were stopped from doing it by

some of the old men, with a considerable display of indignation and

authority. As it happened, a day or two afterwards, but still while

the Kula party were away, one of the favourite sons of To'uluwa, called

Nabwasu'a, who had not gone on the expedition, was caught in flagrante

delicto of adultery with the youngest wife of the very old chief of

Kasana'i. The people of the latter village were highly incensed,

not without an admixture of malicious amusement. One of these who

had been expelled two nights before from Omarakana took a conch shell

and with its blast announced to the wide world the shame and scandal

of Omarakana. As a conch shell is blown only on very important and

ceremonial occasion, this was a slap in the face of the supposedly

virtuous community, and a reproach of its hypocrisy. A man of Kasana'i,

speaking in a loud voice, addressed the people of Omarakana:--

"You don't allow us to enter your village; you call us adulterous

(tokaylasi); but we wanted only to go and visit our friends. And

look here, Nabwasu'a committed adultery in our village!"

The uvalaku party, to whom we now return, would cross the sea in

a few hours and arrive in Kitava. Their manner of sailing, the

arrangement of men in the canoe, the taboos of sailing are the same

as in Sinaketa. My knowledge of their canoe magic is much smaller

than of that in Southern Boyowa, but I think they have got far fewer

rites. The sailing on these seas is on the whole easier, for there

are fewer reefs, and the two prevailing winds would either bring them

towards the Eastern islands, or push them back towards the long coast

of Boyowa. The natives of Kiriwina are on the other hand far less

expert sailors than the Sinaketans.

They have the same beliefs about the dangers at sea, especially about

the participation of the flying witches in shipwreck. The history of

such a calamity and the means of escape from it, given in one of the

foregoing chapters (Chapter X), refers to these seas, as well as to

the sea-arm of Pilolu.

These natives, as well as the Southern Boyowans, feel and appreciate

the romance of sailing; they are visibly excited at the idea of an

expedition, they enjoy even the sight of the open sea on the Eastern

coast beyond the raybwag (coral ridge), and often walk there on mere

pleasure parties. The Eastern coast is much finer than the beach of the

Lagoon; steep, dark rocks alternate there with fine, sandy beaches, the

tall jungle spreading over the higher and lower parts of the shore. The

sailing to Kitava does not present, however, the same contrasts as an

expedition to the d'Entrecasteaux Islands from Southern Boyowa. The

natives remain still in the world of raised coral islands, which

they know from their own home. Even the island of Muyuwa (or Murua,

Woodlark Island) where I spent a short time, does not present such

a definite contrast in landscape as that between the Trobriands and

the Koya. I do not know from personal experience the Marshall Bennett

Islands, but from an excellent description given by Professor Seligman,

they seem to be good specimens of small raised atolls. [85]

With regard to magic, the most important initial rites over the lilava

and sulumwoya are done in the village by the toliwaga (compare above,

Chapter VII). The magic over the four coco-nuts in the canoe is not

performed in Kiriwina. On arrival at the beach in Kitava, all the

rites of beauty magic, as well as the magic over the conch shell

are recited in a manner identical to that in Sarubwoyna (Chapter

XIII). Here, however, the natives have to make the last stage of the

journey on foot.

The party, headed by a small boy, probably a youngest son of the

toliwaga, after whom the chief and the others follow, would march

towards the village which is situated beyond the elevated ridge. When

soulava (necklaces) are brought by the party--which, it must be

remembered is never the case on an uvalaku--they would be carried

ceremonially on sticks by some men following the chief. In that

case, that is when the party are bringing Kula gifts--the youlawada

ceremony is performed. On entering the village, the party march on

briskly without looking to right or left, and, whilst the boy blows

frantically the conch shell, and all the men in the party emit the

intermittent ceremonial scream called tilaykiki, others throw stones

and spears at the kavalapu, the ornamental carved and painted boards

running in a Gothic arch round the eaves of a chief's house or yam

house. Almost all the kavalapu in the Eastern villages are slightly

injured, that of To'uluwa having one of its ends knocked off. The

damage is not repaired, as it is a mark of distinction.

This custom is not known in the Kula between Sinaketa and Dobu

or Sinaketa and Kiriwina. It begins on the Eastern shore of the

Trobriands, and is carried on as far as Tubetube where it stops again,

for it is not practised in Wari (Teste Island) or on the portion of

the Kula between Tubetube and Dobu. I myself never saw it practised

in the Trobriands, but I saw a similar custom among the Massim of the

South Coast of New Guinea. At a so'i feast which I witnessed in three

different villages as it progressed from one to the other, the party

who brought in gifts of pigs to a man attempted to do some damage to

his trees or his house. A pig is always slung by its legs on a long,

stout pole, dangling head downwards (see Plates V and LXIII): with

this pole the natives would ram a young coco-nut or betel-nut palm or

a fruit tree and if not stopped by the owners would break or uproot

it, the pig squealing and the women of the damaged party screaming in

unison. Again, a party entering a village with gifts to one of the

inhabitants, would throw miniature spears at his house. A distinct

show of fierceness and hostility is displayed on both sides by the

natives on such occasions. Although the somewhat histrionic attack,

and the slight but real damage to property were sanctioned by tribal

usage, not infrequently among the Southern Massim serious quarrels

and scrimmages were started by it. This custom has been observed by

Professor Seligman among the natives of Bartle Bay. "As a man passed

the house, they speared the wall with the branches they had been

waving, and left them stuck in the walls." And again: "... the people

bringing them (the pigs) in, carried branches of trees or pieces of

stick with a wisp of grass tied to the end, and with these speared

the house of the man to whom the pigs were given." [86]

When we remember what has been said about the style in which all

gifts are given; that is, so to speak, thrown down fiercely and almost

contemptuously by the giver; when we remember the taunts with which

gifts are often accompanied, as well as the manner in which they

are received, the youlawada custom appears only as an exaggerated

form of this manner of giving, fixed into a definite ceremonial. It

is interesting from this point of view to note that the youlawada is

only done in association with vaga (initial gifts) and not with the

yotile (return gifts).

The Kiriwinian party, after having paid their preliminary ceremonial

visit in the village, given their gifts, both of the Kula and

of the pari type, and had a long chat with their partners and

friends, return in the evening to the beach, where they camp near

their canoes. Sometimes temporary huts are erected, sometimes in

fine weather the natives sleep under mats on the sand beach. Food is

brought to them from the village by young, unmarried girls, who very

often on that occasion arrange their intrigues with the visitors. The

party will remain for a few days paying calls to the other villages

of the island, talking, inspecting the gardens and hoping for more

Kula presents. The food of Kitava is not tabooed to the chiefs, as the

Kitavans abstain from the worst abominations. At parting the visitors

receive their talo'i gifts which are brought down to their canoes.

The visits are returned by the Kitavans in very much the same

manner. They camp on the sand beaches of the Eastern Coast. When

weather-bound they erect temporary habitations, and I have seen whole

families, men, women, and children living for days on some of the

Eastern shores. For it is the custom of the men of Kitava to carry

their women and small children on their trips. The Kiriwinians take

sometimes unmarried girls, but they would never take their wives and

small children, whilst in the South no Sinaketan women at all go on

a Kula voyage however small and unimportant a one it may be. From

big uvalaku expeditions, women are excluded in all the districts.

It has been mentioned in the last chapter that Kitava enjoys a

privileged position in the Ring, for every single piece of valuables

has to pass through it. The island of Kitava is a 'Kula community'

in itself. All its neighbours to the West, the Kula communities of

Kiriwina, Luba, Wawela, Southern Boyowa (that is, the villages of

Okayyaulo, Bwaga and Kumilabwaga) cannot skip Kitava when they are

exchanging, and the same refers to the Kitavan neighbours in the

East. In other words, a man from the Eastern islands beyond Kitava,

if he wants to pass an armshell westwards, has to give it to a Kitava

man, and may not give it directly to some one beyond. The islands

East of Kitava, Iwa, Gawa, and Kwayawata form one community. This

is shown on Map V, where each 'Kula community' is represented by one

circle. The Kula stream, after having concentrated in Kitava, spreads

out again, but by no means as broadly as when it runs to the Westward,

and overflows over the broad area of the Trobriands. Another point,

in which the Kula of Kitava differs from that of Sinaketa or Kiriwina,

a point on which I have touched already once before (in Chapter XIII,

Division I) is that the small island has to make overseas exchanges

on both sides. As we saw, the Sinaketans carry on big expeditions and

make uvalaku only to their Southern partners, so that they receive

only the one Kula article, the necklaces in this manner, while their

armshells come to them by inland Kula, from their Northern and Eastern

neighbours. The same mutatis mutandis refers to the Kiriwinians, who

receive all their necklaces overland and make overseas Kula for their

armshells only. The two islands of Kitava and Vakuta, as well as the

other Marshall Bennetts are, so to speak, ambidextrous in the Kula

and have to fetch and carry both articles overseas. This, of course,

results primarily from the geographical position in a district and

a glance at Map V will easily show which Kula communities have to

carry all their transactions overseas and which of them have to do one

half of them overland. These latter are only the Trobriand districts

mentioned in the previous Chapter and the districts in Dobu.

III

This exhausts all the peculiarities of the Kula in Kitava except one,

and that a very important one. It has been mentioned before, in fact it

is obvious from the account of the uvalaku custom that the Kula does

not run with an even flow, but in violent gushes. Thus the uvalaku

expedition from Dobu described in Chapter XVI carried about 800 pairs

of armshells from Boyowa. Such sudden rushes of the Kula articles

are associated with an important institution, which is not known in

the Trobriands or in Dobu, but which we find in Kitava and further

along the Ring, as far as Tubetube (see Map V). When a man dies,

custom imposes a taboo upon the inhabitants of that village. This

means that no one on a visit is received in the village, and no Kula

articles are given away from there. The community lying under the

taboo, however, expect to receive as many Kula gifts as possible, and

busy themselves in that matter. After a certain time, a big ceremony

and distribution of goods, called so'i is held, and invitations are

sent out to all the Kula partners, and, in the case of a big affair,

even to people from districts beyond the boundary of partnership. A

big distribution of food takes place in which all the guests receive

their share, and then the Kula valuables are given in great quantities

to the partners of that community.

The association of taboo on economic goods with mourning is a

wide-spread feature of the Melanesian customs in New Guinea. I found it

among the Mailu on the South Coast of New Guinea, where a taboo, called

gora, is put on coco-nuts as one of the features of mourning. [87]

The same institution, as we saw, obtains in Dobu. Similar taboos are

to be found among the Southern Massim. [88]

The importance of such economic taboos at times of mourning is due

to another wide-spread association, that namely which obtains between

mourning and feasts, or, more correctly, distributions of food, which

are made at intervals during a more or less prolonged period after a

person's death. An especially big feast, or rather distribution, is

made at the end of the period, and on this occasion the accumulated

goods, usually coco-nut, betel-nut and pigs, are distributed. Death

among all the coastal natives of Eastern New Guinea causes a great

and permanent disturbance in the equilibrium of tribal life. On

the one hand, there is the stemming of the normal flow of economic

consumption. On the other hand, an innumerable series of rites,

ceremonies and festive distributions, which one and all create all

sorts of reciprocal obligations, take up the best part of the energy,

attention and time of the natives for a period of a few months,

or a couple of years according to the importance of the dead. The

immense social and economic upheaval which occurs after each death

is one of the most salient features of the culture of these natives,

and one also which on its surface strikes us as enigmatic and which

entices into all sorts of speculations and reflections. What makes

the problem still more obscure and complex is the fact that all these

taboos, feasts, and rites have nothing whatever to do, in the belief

of the natives, with the spirit of the deceased. This latter has gone

at once and settled definitely in another world, entirely oblivious

of what happens in the villages and especially of what is done in

memory of his former existence.

The so'i (distribution of food) as found in Kitava is the final act in

a long series of minor distributions. What distinguishes it from its

Boyowan counterparts and the similar ceremonies among the other Massim,

is the accumulation of Kula goods. In this case, as we have said,

the taboo extends also to the valuables. Immediately after death has

occurred in a village, a large stick is placed on the reef in front of

its landing beach, and a conch shell is tied to it. This is a sign that

no visitors will be received who come to ask for Kula goods. Besides

this, a taboo is also imposed on coco-nut, betel-nut and pigs.

These details, as well as the following ones, I received from an

intelligent and reliable Kitavan informant, who has settled in

Sinaketa. He told me that according to the importance of the death,

and the speed with which the goods were accumulating after a year

or so, word would be sent round to all the partners and muri-muri

(partners once removed).

"When all are assembled," my informant told me, "the sagali

(distribution) begins. They sagali first kaulo (yam food),

then bulukwa (pig). When pig is plentiful it would be given in

halves; when not, it will be quartered. A big heap of yam food,

of coco-nut, betel-nut, and banana would be placed for each

canoe. Side by side with this row, a row of pig meat would be

placed. One man calls out for the yam heaps, another for the

pig-meat; the name of each canoe is called out. If it were a

whole pig, they would say, 'To'uluwa kam visibala!' (To'uluwa,

your whole pig)! Otherwise they would call out, 'Mililuta, kami

bulukwa!' (Men of Liluta, your pig). And again, 'Mililuta, kami

gogula!' (Men of Liluta, your heap). They take it, take their

heap to their canoe. There, the toliwaga (master of the canoe)

would make another small sagali. Those, who live near by, singe

their meat, and carry it home in their canoes. Those who live

far away, roast the pig, and eat it on the beach."

It will be noted that the supreme chief's name would be uttered when

his and his companion's share is allotted. With the shares of men

of less importance, the name of the village is called out. As on

all such occasions, the strangers do not eat their food in public,

and even its re-distribution is done in the privacy of their camping

place near the canoe.

After the distribution of the food, and of course before this is taken

away by the parties, the master of the so'i goes into his house and

takes out a specially good piece of valuable. With a blast of the

conch shell, he gives it to the most distinguished of his partners

present. Others follow his example, and soon the village is filled

with conch shell blasts, and all the members of the community are busy

presenting gifts to their partners. First, the initial gifts (vaga)

are given, and only after this is over, such valuables as have been

due of old to their partners, and which have to be given as clinching

gifts (yotile) are handed over.

After the whole public distribution is finished and the guests have

gone, the members of the sub-clan who organised it, at sunset make a

small distribution of their own, called kaymelu. With that the so'i

and the whole period of mourning and of consecutive distributions,

is over. I have said before that this account of the so'i has been

obtained only through the statements of several informants, one

especially very clear and reliable. But it has not been checked by

personal observation, and as is always the case with such material,

there is no guarantee of its being complete.

From the point of view in which it interests us, however, that is, in

connection with the Kula, the outstanding fact is well established;

a mortuary taboo temporarily holds up the flow of Kula goods, and a

big quantity of valuables thus dammed up, is suddenly let loose by

the so'i and spreads in a big wave along the circuit. The big wave

of armshells, for instance, which travelled along and was taken up

by the uvalaku expedition of the Dobuans, was the ripple of a so'i

feast, held one or two months previously at full moon in Yanabwa, a

village of Woodlark Island. When I was leaving Boyowa, in September,

1918, a mortuary taboo was in force in the Island of Yeguma, or

Egum, as it is pronounced in the Eastern district (the Alcester

Islands of the map). Kwaywaya, the chief of Kitava whom I met on his

visit in Sinaketa, told me that the people of Yeguma had sent him

a sprouting coco-nut, with the message: "When its leaves develop,

we shall sagali (make the distribution)." They had kept a coco-nut

at the same stage of development in their village, and sent others to

to all the neighbouring communities. This would give a first approach

in fixing the date, which would be appointed more precisely when the

feast was close at hand.

The custom of associating the so'i with Kula is practised as far

as Tubetube. In Dobu, there is no distribution of valuables at

the mortuary feast. They have there another custom, however; at

the final mortuary distribution, they like to adorn themselves with

armshells and necklaces of the Kula--a custom entirely foreign to the

Trobrianders. In Dobu therefore, an approaching mortuary feast also

tends to dam up the valuables, which, after its performance will ebb

away in two waves of mwali and so'ulava along both branches of the

Kula. But they have no custom of distributing these valuables during

the final mortuary feast, and therefore the release of the vaygu'a

would not be as sudden as in a so'i.

The same word--so'i--is used to denote the mortuary festivities

over a wide area in the country of the Massim. Thus, the natives

of Bonabona and Su'a'u, on the South Coast of New Guinea celebrate

annually in November to January festivities, associated with dancing,

gifts of pigs, the building of new houses, the erection of a platform

and several other features. These feasts, which are held in an

inter-connected series each year in several different localities,

I had opportunities, as mentioned before, to see in three places, but

not to study. Whether they are associated with some form of exchange

of valuables I do not know. Mortuary feasts in other districts of

the Massim are also called so'i. [89] What is the relation between

these feasts and those of the Northern Massim I am unable to say. [90]

These considerations bring us more and more to the point, where the

two branches of the Kula which we have been following up from the

Trobriands Southwards and Eastwards bend back again and meet. On

this remaining part of the Kula, on which my information, however,

is scanty, a few words will be said in the next Chapter.

CHAPTER XXI

THE REMAINING BRANCHES AND OFFSHOOTS OF THE KULA

I

In this chapter the ring of the Kula has to be closed by a description

of its remaining portions. It will also be found indispensable to speak

about its offshoots, that is, the trade and the expeditions, regularly

carried on from certain points of the ring to outlying places. We have

come across such offshoots already, when we realised that the Western

Trobriands, especially the village of Kavataria, and the settlements on

the island of Kayleula make non-Kula trading expeditions to the islands

of Fergusson and Goodenough. Such expeditions would naturally belong

to a full picture of the Kula, with its various associations. This

is even more the case, as this lateral trade is associated with the

import and export of some of the Kula valuables in and out of the ring.

We have brought the description of our Southern expedition as far as

Dawson Straits, and on the Eastern route, we reached Woodlark Island

in the last chapter. We have to link up these two points. The saying,

that a chain is not stronger than its weakest link does not, let us

hope, apply to Ethnology. For indeed my knowledge of the remaining

links of the Kula chain is far less complete than that contained in

the previous chapters. Fortunately, what has been said there, remains

true and valid, whatever might happen in the South-Eastern portion of

the Kula. And again, there is no doubt that the fundamentals of the

transaction are identical all over the ring, though some variations in

detail probably occur. I had the opportunity of questioning informants

from almost every place in the Kula, and the similarity of the main

outlines is established beyond a doubt. Moreover, the information

about some aspect of trade in the Southern Massim district contained in

Professor Seligman's book, entirely, though indirectly, corroborates

my results. But it is necessary to state emphatically and explicitly

that the data given in this chapter are not in the same category

as the rest of the information contained in this book. The latter

was obtained from natives among whom I lived, and the bulk of it has

been controlled and verified by personal experiences and observations

(compare Table I in the Introduction). The material referring to the

South Eastern branch was obtained by cursory examination of natives

from that district, whom I met abroad, not in their own country, whilst

I have not been in any of the places between Woodlark Island and Dobu.

Starting at Woodlark Island, and keeping Map V before our eyes--we

come at once on to an interesting ramification of the Kula. To the

East of Woodlark, lies the coral group of the Loughlans, inhabited

by natives speaking the same language as in Woodlark. They are in

the ring, but it seems to be a cul-de-sac Kula, for as I was told,

the valuables, which go there, return again to Woodlark. This is quite

an unusual complication, a kind of eddy in the otherwise progressive

current. I could not ascertain whether the difficulty is solved by

the districts being sub-divided, a small ring being formed within it,

and each class of articles moving on it in an opposite direction;

or whether some other arrangement has been adopted. Again, one of my

informants told me that some of the vaygu'a went directly from the

Loughlans South to Misima, but I was unable to verify this statement

and this whole part of the Kula must remain with a sketchy outline.

Whatever might be the routes on which the Kula articles travel

South from Woodlark Island, there is no doubt whatever that they

all, or almost all, converge in the important commercial centre of

Tubetube. This small island, according to Professor Seligman, is

not even self-supporting as far as food goes; nor are they a greatly

industrial community. They are to a great extent engaged in trade,

and probably gain part of their support from this activity. "Tubetube

has become a trading community, whose inhabitants are recognised

as traders and middlemen over a very considerable area, extending

westwards ... to Rogea and eastward to Murua." [91] Tubetube is known

even in the Trobriands as one of the crucial points of the Kula,

and it is well known that, whatever happens in the small island in

the way of mortuary taboos and big feasts will affect the flow of

valuables in Boyowa.

There is no doubt whatever that Tubetube had direct relations with

Murua (to use the Tubetube pronunciation of the native name for

Woodlark Island) to the North-East, and with Dobu to the North-West. I

saw a canoe from the small island beached at Dobu, and in Woodlark

I was told that men from Tubetube used to come there from time to

time. Professor Seligman also describes in detail the manner and the

stages of their sailings to Woodlark Island:

"Their trade route to Murua ... was, as they made it, about 120-135

miles. They would usually go during the monsoon, and come back on

the trade, as those winds served their itinerary best. Presuming that

wind and weather served them throughout the passage, they slept the

first night on an island called Ore, a couple of miles or so from

Dawson Island. The next night they made Panamoti, the third night

they slept at Tokunu (the Alcesters), and by the fourth night, they

might reach Murua." [92] This description reminds us very much of the

route on which we previously had followed the Sinaketans to Dobu--the

same short stages with intermediate camping on sandbanks or islands,

the same taking advantage of favourable following winds.

From Kitava Eastward as far as Tubetube, a different type of canoe was

used, the nagega, mentioned already in Chapter V, Division IV. As we

saw there, it was very much the same in principles of construction

as the Trobriand canoe, but it was bigger, of a greater carrying

capacity, and more seaworthy. It was at the same time slower, but

had one great advantage over the swifter counterpart; having more

waterboard, it made less leeway in its sailing, and could be sailed

against the wind. It would thus allow the natives to cross distances

and to face changes in the weather, either of which would compel the

frailer and swifter canoe of Dobu and Kiriwina to turn back.

To the Northern shores of Normanby Island (Du'a'u) and to Dobu,

the men of Tubetube would sail with the S.E. trade wind and return

with the blow of the monsoon. According to Professor Seligman, such

a trip to Dobu would take them also about four days, under the most

favourable conditions. [93]

Thus, one fundamental fact can be regarded as definitely established;

the main centre of the Kula in its South-Eastern branch, was the small

island of Tubetube. And this island was in direct communication with

two points to which we have followed the Kula in two directions,

starting from the Trobriands; that is, with Dobu and with Woodlark

Island.

On points of detail, some queries must be left unsolved. Were

the visits returned by the Dobuans and Muruans? According to all

probability, yes, but I possess no definite certainty on this point.

Another question is whether the natives of Tubetube were direct

partners of Murua or Dobu. We have seen that natives of Kiriwina sail

not infrequently to Iwa, Gawa, Kwayawata and even to Woodlark; yet

they are not partners (karayta'u) of these natives, but partners once

removed (murimuri). I have definite information that the natives of

Dobu Island proper and of Du'a'u, who, as we remember are not partners

of the Southern Boyowans, stood in direct relation of partnership to

the Tubetube. I believe also that the natives of Woodlark made direct

Kula exchange with those of Tubetube.

The fact, however, that there is a direct line of communication between

Murua-Tubetube-Dobu does not preclude the possibility of other and

more complex routes running parallel with the direct one. Indeed,

I know that the island of Wari, (Teste Island) lying almost due

South of Tubetube is also in the Kula. The big island of Misima

(St. Aignan Island) about a hundred miles East of Tubetube forms

also part of the ring. Thus a much wider circle runs from Woodlark

Island, perhaps from the Loughlans through Misima, the neighbouring

small island of Panayati, Wari, and further West, through the group

of islands quite close to the East end of New Guinea, that is, the

islands of Sariba, Roge'a, and Basilaki, and then northwards again

towards Normanby Island. This duplicated circuit in the South-East

has its North-Western counterpart in the double ramification which

unites Kitava with Dobu. The short route runs direct from Kitava

to Vakuta and from Vakuta to Dobu. Besides this, however, there are

several longer ones. In one of them the stages are as follows: Kitava,

Okayaulo, or Kitava, Wawela, thence Sinaketa, then Dobu direct; or via

the Amphletts. Another and still wider ramification would run thus:

Kitava, to Kiriwina, Kiriwina to Sinaketa, etc.; or, the widest,

Kiriwina to western Boyowa, then Kayleula, thence Amphletts, and from

there to Dobu. This last route was not only longest in distance, but

owing to the notorious 'hardness' of both the natives of Kayleula and

of the Amphletts, would take up much more time. A glance at Map V,

and also at the more detailed map of the Trobriands (Map IV) will

make all this clear.

A more detailed knowledge of the North-Western routes allowed us to

see the complications and irregularities obtaining there; that the

district of Western Boyowa carried on exclusively the inland Kula,

and that merely in the person of a few headmen of a few villages;

that Kayleula made Kula on a small scale with the communities in the

Amphletts, and that all these, as well as the villages on the Eastern

shore of Southern Boyowa, were what we described as semi-independent

Kula communities. Such details and peculiarities no doubt also exist

with regard to the South-Eastern ramifications of the Kula, but must

be taken here for granted.

Following the various threads further on, I have no doubt that

the islands lying near the East end of New Guinea--Roge'a, Sariba,

Basilaki--are and were in olden days in the Kula ring, communicating

in the East with Tubetube and Wari, while to the North they were in

contact with the natives of Normanby Island. Whether the large village

complex lying at East Cape was also in the Kula I cannot definitely

say. In any case all the strands led to the Eastern shores of Dawson

Straits, by way of the North-Eastern shores of Normanby Island. From

here, from the district of Dobu, we have traced the further lines

with complete exactness and detail.

Of the various details of these expeditions and technicalities of the

Kula observed in them, I have not much material available. The rules of

actual exchange, the ceremonial of conch blowing, the code of honour

or morality or vanity, perhaps, compelling people to give equivalent

articles for what they have received, all these are the same all

along the ring. So is also the Kula magic, with variations in details.

II

One subject on which more must be said is that of the associated

trade. A new and important article of exchange accompanies the

transaction in the South-Eastern branch of the Kula: the big,

sea-going canoes. The main centres of manufacture, and to a

great extent manufacture for export, were the islands of Gawa and

Panayati. In these places, canoes were constructed for export to the

southern districts where the natives did not know how to build such

canoes (compare Chapter I, Division III). In olden days the natives

of Woodlark Island, before its present depopulation, also probably

made some canoes for exchange in external trade. I have seen these

canoes owned by natives in the Southern Massim district as far as

Orangerie Bay, over two hundred miles from the place where they were

manufactured. The trading of this article ran along with the Kula lines

of communication as there is no doubt that the natives of Tubetube

and Wari were the main distributors and middlemen in this trade.

How far canoe exchange was associated directly with Kula transactions,

I cannot say definitely. Judging from the data given by Professor

Seligman, [94] armshells were paid by natives of Tubetube for

canoes purchased from Panamoti in the North. Thus, the mwali in

this commercial transaction, travelled in a direction opposite to

that in which they must move in the Kula ring. This, again, suggests

complete independence of the two transactions. Besides the canoes,

another important article of trade in the southern portion are the

clay pots manufactured both in Tubetube and Wari. Besides this, the

two islands of "merchant venturers," as they are called by Professor

Seligman, carry on their Kula expeditions, and most likely independent

of them also, they trade almost all the various articles of industry

manufactured in the neighbouring districts and distributed by the

two communities. This subject has been treated so fully by Professor

Seligman in Chapter XL of his "Melanesians" that a reference here

will suffice. [95]

Having now before us the whole ring of the Kula, we may inquire how far

is this ring in contact commercially with other outlying districts,

and, more especially, how far are certain articles of trade imported

into it and others drawn out of it? What will interest us most in

this connection is the entry into the ring and the exit out of it of

the articles of Kula proper, the mwali (armshells) and the soulava

(necklaces).

III

One such offshoot of the Kula ring we met in the Trobriands, to wit,

the expeditions from the Western village of Kavataria, and from the

island of Kayleula, to the Koya of Fergusson and Goodenough. We

shall begin with a brief account of these expeditions. [96] The

preparations are very much the same, as in Sinaketa. The canoes

are built with more or less the same magic (cf. Chapter V), they

are launched ceremonially and the trial run, the tasasoria, also

takes place (Chapter VI). The island of Kayleula is by far the more

important centre of canoe building. Whether some of the Kavataria

canoes were not actually made in Kayleula and purchased by the

Kavatarians in olden days, I do not definitely know, though I think

this was the case. Nowadays, the community of Kavataria are completely

absorbed by the pearling industry, and since about a generation ago

have given up the expeditions, and even do not own any canoes. The

collecting of trade articles, the magic performed over the lilava,

the yawarapu, and the sulumwoya are the same as those described before

(Chapter VII) except, that is, that there exists a different system of

mwasila in the island of Kayleula, a system which was used also by the

Kavatarians. It must be remembered in this connection that the natives

of Kayleula did make Kula on a small scale with the Amphlettans, and

that their mwasila was connected with the Kula. [97] But the main

object of the Kavatarian and Kayleulan mwasila was their non-Kula

trade with the natives of Fergusson and Goodenough. This is quite

clear from Mr. Gilmour's account, and it was also corroborated by

my informants. They told me that the mwasila is done because of the

kavaylu'a (fine food) that is, of the sago and betel-nut and pigs,

the main objects of their expedition:

"If they (the Western Boyowans) would not make mwasila, they

(the Western d'Entrecasteaux natives) would fight them. They are

foolish men, the people of the Koya, not like people of Dobu,

who are human beings. Those in the Koya are wild, eaters of

man. If they (Kavataria and Kayleula) would make no mwasila,

they would refuse them betel-nut, refuse them sago."

The sailing is characterised by the priority enjoyed by the Kulutula

clan, who, as we have seen in a previous chapter (Chapter IX, Division

III) sail ahead and have the privilege of landing first on any beach,

on which they stop. On arrival, they perform the beauty magic,

and sailing towards the beach, the magic of "shaking the mountain"

is also recited. In the Koya, the transactions resemble to a certain

extent those of the Kula. As my informant said:

"When they anchor, first of all they give the pari; they give

combs, lime pots, wooden dishes, lime spatulæ, plenty of gugu'a

(objects of use). At the talo'i (farewell gifts) this will

be repaid."

The following transaction, the main trade, is carried on as

gimwali. The natives of the Koya would bring the sago, or the

betel-nut, put it on the beach near the canoes and say:

"I want a beku (ceremonial axe blade)." And here my informants were

positive that real bargaining would take place. "If they give us

an insufficient quantity, we expostulate, then they bring another

portion. They would go to the village, fetch some more goods,

return and give it to us. If it is enough, we give him the beku."

Thus the barter would be carried on till the visitors had exhausted

their stock in trade and received as much from the local natives as

they could.

These expeditions are interesting in that we see the same type of

magic and a number of similar customs, as in the Kula, associated with

ordinary trading expeditions. I am not certain about the nature of

partnership obtaining in these trading relations, except that Kavataria

and Kayleula have their own districts each with whom they trade.

As said already, the main objects for which they make these distant

trips are sago, betel-nut, pig; also the various feathers, especially

those of the cassowary and the red parrot; rattan-cane belts; plaited

fibre belts; obsidian; fine sand for polishing axe blades; red ochre;

pumice stone; and other products of the jungle and of the volcanic

mountains. For that, they exported to the Koya, to mention the most

valuable first, armshells, the valuable axe blades, boars' tusks and

imitations; and, of lesser value, wooden dishes, combs, lime pots,

armlets, baskets, wayugo creeper, mussel shells and lime spatulæ of

ebony. Spondylus shell necklaces were not exported to the Koya.

IV

Another important activity of the two districts of Kavataria and

Kayleula is their production of armshells. As Sinaketa and Vakuta are

the only two places in the Trobriands where spondylus discs are made,

so Kavataria and Kayleula are the only localities where the natives

fished for the large Conus millepunctatus shell, and made out of it

the ornaments so highly valued yet so seldom used. The main reason for

the exclusive monopoly, held by these two places in the manufacture

of mwali, is the inertia of custom and usage which traditionally

assigns to them this sort of fishing and manufacture. For the shells

are scattered all over the Lagoon, nor is the fishing and diving for

them more difficult than any of the pursuits practised by all the

Lagoon villages. Only the communities mentioned, however, carry it

on, and they only are in possession of a system of elaborate magic,

at least as complex as that of the kaloma.

The actual manufacturing of the armshells presents also no

difficulties. The ornament is made out of a belt of the shell cut out

nearest to its base. With a stone, the natives knock out the circular

base along the rim, and they also knock a circle at some distance

from the base and parallel to it, by which the broad band of shell

is severed, from which the ornament is to be made. It has then to

be polished, and this is done on the outside by rubbing off the soft

calcareous surface on a flat sandstone. The interior is polished off

with a long, cylindrical stone. [98]

It was the custom in Kavataria that when a man found a fine Conus

shell, he would give it to his wife's brother as a youlo present,

who in turn would send the finder a return present of food, such

as specially fine yams, bananas, betel-nut, and also a pig if it

were an especially fine shell. He then would work out the shell for

himself. This arrangement is a pendant to the one described with

reference to Sinaketa, where a man would fish as well as work out a

necklace for one of his wife's kinsmen.

An even more interesting custom obtains in Kayleula. A pair of shells

would be fished and broken in one of the villages of that island,

or in one of its small sister islands, Kuyawa and Manuwata. In this

unfinished state, as a band of coarse shell, called as such makavayna,

it is then brought to the Amphletts, and there given as a Kula

gift. The Gumasila man, who receives the shells, will then polish them

up, and in that state again kula them to Dobu. The Dobuan who receives

them then bores holes in the side, where one rim overlaps the other

(clearly to be seen on Plate XVI) and attaches there the ornaments

of black, wild banana seeds, and spondylus discs. Thus, only after

it has travelled some one hundred miles and passed through two stages

of the Kula, has the mwali received its proper shape and final outfit.

In this manner does a new-born Kula article enter into the ring,

taking shape as it goes through its first few stages, and at the

same time, if it is a specially fine specimen, it is christened by

its maker. Some of the names express simply local associations. Thus,

a celebrated pair of mwali, of which the shell was found not long ago

by a Kavataria man near the island of Nanoula, is named after that

place. It may be added that, in each pair there is always a 'right'

and a 'left' one, the first the bigger and more important of the two,

and it is after that the name is given. Of course, they never are found

at the same time, but if a man has succeeded in obtaining a specially

fine specimen, he will be busy trying to find its slightly inferior

companion, or some of his relatives-in-law, friends or kinsmen will

give him one. 'Nanoula' is one of the most celebrated pairs, and it

was known all over the Trobriands, at that moment, that it was soon to

come to Kitava, and the general interest hung round the question who

was going to get it in Boyowa. A pair called 'Sopimanuwata,' which

means, 'water of Manuwata' was found in olden days by a man of that

island close to its shores. Another famous pair, made in Kayleula,

was called 'Bulivada,' after a fish of this name. The larger shell

of this pair was found, according to tradition, broken, with a hole

near its apex. When they brought it to the surface they found a small

bulivada fish which had taken up its abode in the shell. Another pair

was called 'Gomane ikola,' which means 'it is entangled in a net,'

as, according to the story, it was brought up in a net. There are

many other celebrated mwali, the names of which are so familiar that

boys and girls are named after them. But the majority of the names

cannot be traced as to their origins.

Another point at which the armshells enter into the ring is Woodlark

Island. I do not know for certain, but I believe that the industry is

quite or almost extinct now in that island. In the olden days, Murua

probably was quite as productive a centre of this manufacture as the

Trobriands, and in these latter though Kayleula and the Western islands

fish and work the mwali as much as ever, the natives of Kavataria are

almost entirely out of it, busy all the time diving for pearls. Both

the main places of origin of the armshells, therefore, are within

the Kula ring. After they are made, or, as we saw in Kayleula, in

the process of making, they enter the circulation. Their entry into

the ring is not accompanied by any special rite or custom, and indeed

it does not differ from an ordinary act of exchange. If the man who

found the shell and made the mwali were not in the Kula himself,

as might happen in Kavataria or Kayleula, he would have a relative,

a brother-in-law, or a head man to whom he would give it in the form of

one or other of the many gifts and payments obligatory in this society.

V

Let us follow the ring of the Kula, noticing its commercial side

tracks, of which so far we only described the trading routes of

Kavataria and Kayleula. To the Eastward, the section from Kitava

to Woodlark Island is the one big portion of the Kula from which

no lateral offshoots issue, and on which all the trade follows

the same routes as the Kula. The other branch, of which I have

got a good knowledge, that from the Trobriands to Dobu, has the

commercial relations of which I have just spoken. The Amphletts,

as described in Chapter XI trade with the natives of Fergusson

Island. The Dobuan-speaking natives from Tewara, Sanaroa, and the

Dawson Straits make exchange, though perhaps not on a very big scale,

with the inland natives of Fergusson. The Dobuan-speaking communities

on Normanby Island, and the natives of Du'a'u, on the Northern coast of

Normanby, all of whom are in the Kula, trade with the other natives of

Normanby Island who are not in the ring, and with the natives of the

mainland of New Guinea from East Cape Westwards. But, all this trade

affects little the main current of the Kula. From its main stream,

possibly some of the less valuable articles ebb away into the jungle,

which, in its turn, gives its produce to the coast.

The most important leakage out and into the main stream takes place

on the Southern section, mainly at Tubetube and Wari, and at some

points of lesser importance around these two main centres. The North

coast of New Guinea was connected with this district through the

seafaring community at East Cape. But this side branch is of very

small importance as regards the main articles of the Kula. It is

the two connections to East and West, at the extreme southern point

of the Kula ring, which matter most. One of them links up the South

Coast of New Guinea with the Kula ring, the other joins the ring to

the big islands of Sud-Est (Tagula) and Rossel with several adjacent

small islands.

The South Coast, going from East to West, is at first inhabited

by natives of the Massim stock, speaking the Su'a'u and Bonabona

dialects. These are in constant intercourse with the Southern section

of the Kula district, that is with the natives of Rogea, Sariba,

Basilaki, Tubetube and Wari. The Massim of the Southern coast are again

in commercial relations with the Mailu, and from this point, a chain

of trading relations unites the Eastern districts with the Central

ones, inhabited by the Motu. The Motu again as we know from Captain

Barton's contribution to Professor Seligman's work, are in annual

trading relations with the Gulf of Papua, so that an article could

travel from the delta of any of the Papuan rivers to Woodlark in the

Trobriands, and many things were in fact traded over all this distance.

There is, however, one movement which specially interests us from the

Kula point of view, namely that of the two types of Kula valuables. One

of these articles, the armshells, travels on the South Coast from East

to West. There is no doubt that this article leaks out from the Kula

current at its Southernmost point, and is carried away towards Port

Moresby, where the value of armshells is, and was, in olden days much

higher than in the Eastern district. I found in Mailu that the local

native traders purchased, for pigs, armshells in the Su'a'u district,

and carried them West towards Aroma, Hula, and Kerepunu. Professor

Seligman, from his notes taken at Port Moresby, informs us that Hula,

Aroma, and Kerepunu import armshells into Port Moresby. Some of these

armshells, according to the same authority, travel further West as

far as the Gulf of Papua. [99]

It was much more difficult to ascertain what was the direction in which

the spondylus shell necklaces moved on the Southern Coast. Nowadays,

the industry of making these articles, which was once very highly

developed among the Port Moresby natives is partially, though not

completely in decay. I have myself still had the opportunity of

watching the natives of Bo'era at work on the ageva, the very small and

fine shell discs, such as the very finest bagi would consist of. They

were using in their manufacture a native pump-drill with a quartz

point, in a place within a few miles of a large white settlement, in a

district where white man's influence on a big scale has been exercised

for the last fifty years. Yet, this is only a vestige of the once

extremely developed industry. My inquiries into this subject could

not be exhaustive, for when I worked on the South Coast, I did not

have the problem before me, and on my second and third expeditions

to New Guinea I only passed through Port Moresby. But I think it

may be considered certain that in olden days the shell strings moved

from Port Moresby Eastwards and were introduced into the Kula ring,

at the East end of New Guinea.

However this might be, unquestionable sources of this Kula article are

the islands of Sud-Est, Rossel, and the surrounding small islands. The

best spondylus shell, with the reddest colours is fished in these

seas, and the natives are expert workers of the discs, and export the

finished article to the island of Wari, and, I believe, to the islands

of Misima and Panayati. The most important articles for which the

necklaces are traded are the canoes, and the large polished axe blades.

Casting now a glance at the Kula ring we see that one class of Kula

article, the mwali or armshells, are produced within the ring at two

points, that is, in Woodlark Island and in Western Boyowa. The other

article, that is the soulava or bagi (necklaces) are poured into the

ring at its southernmost point. One of these sources (Rossel Island)

is still active, the other (Port Moresby) most probably furnished

a good supply in olden days, but is now disconnected with the Kula

ring. The necklaces produced in Sinaketa are not the real Kula article,

and though they are sometimes exchanged they sooner or later disappear

from the ring according to a sort of Gresham's Law, which operates here

on an article which is not money, and therefore acts in the opposite

sense! The third type of valuable which sometimes flows in the Kula

stream but is not really of it, the large green stone axe blades,

finely polished all over, are, as we know, or more correctly were,

quarried in Woodlark Island, and polished in the district of Kiriwina

in the Trobriands. Another polishing centre is, or was, I believe,

the island of Misima.

We see that the two sources of the mwali and soulava are at

the Northern and Southern ends of the ring; the armshells being

manufactured in the extreme North, the necklaces entering at the

Southern end. It is noteworthy that on the Eastern portion of the ring,

on the section Woodlark-Boyowa-Dobu-Tubetube, the two articles travel

in the natural direction, that is, each is exported from the districts

of its origin towards one, where it is not made or procured. On the

other branch, Woodlark-Yeguma-Tubetube, the current of the Kula is

inverse to a natural, commercial movement of the articles, for here,

the Tubetube people import armshells into Murua, thus bringing coals to

Newcastle, while the Muruans bring necklaces to Tubetube and Wari, that

is, to the points at which the necklaces flow into the ring from the

outside. These considerations are important for anyone who would like

to reflect on the origins, or history of the Kula, since the natural

movement of valuables was no doubt the original one, and the Western

half of the Kula from this point of view appears to be the older.

But here we have come to an end of all the descriptive data referring

to the Kula, and some general remarks which I have to make upon it,

will be reserved for the next and last chapter.

CHAPTER XXII

THE MEANING OF THE KULA

We have been following the various routes and ramifications of the

Kula, entering minutely and meticulously into its rules and customs.,

its beliefs and practices, and the mythological tradition spun round

it, till, arriving at the end of our information, we have made its two

ends meet. We shall now put aside the magnifying glass of detailed

examination and look from a distance at the subject of our inquiry,

take in the whole institution with one glance, let it assume a definite

shape before us. This shape will perhaps strike us as being something

unusual, something not met before in ethnological studies. It will be

well to make an attempt at finding its place among the other subjects

of systematic ethnology, at gauging its significance, at assessing

how much we have learned by becoming acquainted with it.

After all there is no value in isolated facts for science, however

striking and novel they might seem in themselves. Genuine scientific

research differs from mere curio-hunting in that the latter runs after

the quaint, singular and freakish--the craving for the sensational

and the mania of collecting providing its twofold stimulus. Science

on the other hand has to analyse and classify facts in order to place

them in an organic whole, to incorporate them in one of the systems

in which it tries to group the various aspects of reality.

I shall not, of course enter upon any speculations or add any

hypothetical assumptions to the empirical data contained in the

foregoing chapters. I shall confine myself to some reflections on the

most general aspect of the institution, and try to express somewhat

more clearly what to me appears the mental attitude at the bottom

of the various Kula customs. These general points of view ought,

I think, to be considered and tested in further field-work done

on subjects akin to the Kula as well as in theoretical research,

and might thus prove fertile for future scientific work. In this

form it may be granted that it is the privilege of the chronicler

of a novel phenomenon to pass it over to the consideration of

fellow-workers; but it is his duty as well as his privilege. For,

apart from his first-hand acquaintance with the facts--and indeed,

if his account is good, he ought to have succeeded in transferring

the best part of his knowledge to the reader--the fundamental aspects

and characteristics of an ethnographic phenomenon for being general

are none the less empirical. It is therefore the Chronicler's task

to finish his account by a comprehensive, synthetic coup d'oeil upon

the institution described.

As said the Kula seems to be, to a certain extent, a novel type

of ethnological fact. Its novelty lies partly in the size of its

sociological and geographical extent. A big, inter-tribal relationship,

uniting with definite social bonds a vast area and great numbers of

people, binding them with definite ties of reciprocal obligations,

making them follow minute rules and observations in a concerted

manner--the Kula is a sociological mechanism of surpassing size and

complexity, considering the level of culture on which we find it. Nor

can this wide network of social co-relations and cultural influences

be considered for a moment as ephemeral, new or precarious. For its

highly developed mythology and its magical ritual show how deeply it

has taken root in the tradition of these natives and of what ancient

growth it must be.

Another unusual feature is the character of the transaction itself,

which is the proper substance of the Kula. A half commercial, half

ceremonial exchange, it is carried out for its own sake, in fulfilment

of a deep desire to possess. But here again, it is not ordinary

possession, but a special type, in which a man owns for a short time,

and in an alternating manner, individual specimens of two classes of

objects. Though the ownership is incomplete in point of permanency,

it is in turn enhanced in point of numbers successively possessed,

and may be called a cumulative possession.

Another aspect of great, perhaps the greatest, importance and

which perhaps reveals best the unusual character of the Kula is

the natives' mental attitude towards the tokens of wealth. These

latter are neither used nor regarded as money or currency, and they

resemble these economic instruments very little, if indeed there is

any resemblance at all, except that both money and vaygu'a represent

condensed wealth. Vaygu'a is never used as medium of exchange or

as measure of value, which are the two most important functions of

currency or money. Each piece of vaygu'a of the Kula type has one

main object throughout its existence--to be possessed and exchanged;

has one main function and serves one main purpose--to circulate

round the Kula ring, to be owned and displayed in a certain manner,

of which we shall speak presently. And the exchange which each piece

of vaygu'a constantly undergoes is of a very special kind; limited

in the geographical direction in which it can take place, narrowly

circumscribed in the social circle of men between whom it may be

done, it is subject to all sorts of strict rules and regulations;

it can neither be described as barter, nor as simply giving and

receiving of presents, nor in any sense is it a play at exchange. In

fact it is Kula, an exchange of an entirely novel type. And it is

just through this exchange, through their being constantly within

reach and the object of competitive desire, through being the means

of arousing envy and conferring social distinction and renown, that

these objects attain their high value. Indeed, they form one of the

leading interests in native life, and are one of the main items in

the inventory of their culture. Thus, one of the most important and

unusual features of the Kula is the existence of the Kula vaygu'a,

the incessantly circulating and ever exchangeable valuables, owing

their value to this very circulation and its character.

The acts of exchange of the valuables have to conform to a definite

code. The main tenet of this declares that the transaction is not a

bargain. The equivalence of the values exchanged is essential, but it

must be the result of the repayer's own sense of what is due to custom

and to his own dignity. The ceremonial attached to the act of giving,

the manner of carrying and handling the vaygu'a shows distinctly that

this is regarded as something else than mere merchandise. Indeed it

is to the native something that confers dignity, that exalts him,

and which he therefore treats with veneration and affection. Their

behaviour at the transaction, makes it clear that the vaygu'a is

regarded, not only as possessing high value, but that it is treated

also in a ritual manner, and arouses emotional reaction. This

recognition is confirmed and deepened by the consideration of some

other uses of vaygu'a, in which uses other valuables, such as kaloma

belts and large stone blades also function, besides the Kula articles.

Thus, when a malignant spirit, tauva'u (see Chapter II, Division VII)

is found in or near the village in the shape of a snake or a land

crab, some vaygu'a is put before it ceremonially and this is not

done so much in order to bribe the spirit sacrificially by a gift

as rather to exercise a direct action on his mind, and to make it

benevolent. In the annual festive and dancing period, the milamala,

the spirits return to their villages. The Kula valuables at that

time in the hands of the community, as well as the permanent vaygu'a,

such as stone blades, kaloma belts, and doga pendants, are exhibited

sacrificially to the spirits on a platform, an arrangement and custom

called yolova (compare Chapter II, Division VII). Thus the vaygu'a

represent the most effective offering to be given to the spirits,

through which they can be put into a pleasant state of mind; "to

make their minds good," as the stereotyped phrase of the natives

runs. In the yolova an offering is made to the spirits of what is

most valued by the living. The shadowy visitors are supposed to take

the spirit or shadow part of the vaygu'a home, and make a tanarere

of it on the beach of Tuma, just as a Kula party make a tanarere of

the acquired valuables on their home beach (cf. Chapter XV, Division

IV). In all this there is a clear expression of the mental attitude of

the natives, who regard the vaygu'a as supremely good in themselves,

and not as convertible wealth, or as potential ornaments, or even as

instruments of power. To possess vaygu'a is exhilarating, comforting,

soothing in itself. They will look at vaygu'a and handle it for hours;

even a touch of it imparts under circumstances its virtue.

This is most clearly expressed by a custom observed at death. A dying

man is surrounded and overlaid with valuables which all his relatives

and relatives-in-law bring in loan for the occasion, to take it back

when all is over while the man's own vaygu'a are left on the corpse for

some time after death (see Plate LXV). Various rationalised versions

and justifications of this custom are given. Thus it is said to be a

gift to Topileta, the keeper of the nether world; or, again, that it

has to be taken in its spiritual form to procure a high social standing

in Tuma, or simply, that it is laid to adorn and make happier the last

moments of the dying. All these beliefs no doubt exist side by side,

and they are all compatible with, and indeed express, the underlying

emotional attitude; the comforting action of the valuables. It is

applied to the dying as something full of good, as something exercising

a pleasant action, soothing and fortifying at the same time. They put

it on his forehead, they put it on his chest, they rub his belly and

his ribs with it, they dangle some of the vaygu'a before his nose. I

have often seen them do that, in fact, observed them do it for hours,

and I believe there is a complex, emotional and intellectual attitude

at the bottom of it; the desire to inspire with life; and at the same

time to prepare for death; to hold him fast to this one, and to equip

for the other world; but above all, the deep feeling that the vaygu'a

are the supreme comfort, that to surround a man with them, even in

his most evil moment, makes this moment less evil. The same mental

attitude is probably at the bottom of the custom which prescribes

that the widow's brothers should give a vaygu'a to the brothers of

the dead man, the same vaygu'a being given back on the same day. But

it is kept just long enough to be of comfort to those, who, according

to native kinship ideas, are most directly hit by the death.

In all this we find the expression of the same mental attitude, the

extreme value attached to condensed wealth, the serious, respectful way

of treating it, the idea and the feeling that it is the reservoir of

highest good. The vaygu'a are valued in quite a different manner from

that in which we value our wealth. The Biblical symbol of the golden

calf might even be better applied to their attitude than to ours,

although it would be not quite correct to say that they 'worship' the

vaygu'a, for they worship nothing. The vaygu'a might perhaps be called

"objects of cult" in the sense expressed by the facts of the Kula,

and the data just adduced; that is, in so far as they are handled

ritually in some of the most important acts of native life.

Thus, in several aspects, the Kula presents to us a new type of

phenomenon, lying on the borderland between the commercial and

the ceremonial and expressing a complex and interesting attitude

of mind. But though it is novel, it can hardly be unique. For we

can scarcely imagine that a social phenomenon on such a scale,

and obviously so deeply connected with fundamental layers of human

nature, should only be a sport and a freak, found in one spot of the

earth alone. Once we have found this new type of ethnographic fact,

we may hope that similar or kindred ones will be found elsewhere. For

the history of our science shows many cases in which a new type of

phenomena having been discovered, taken up by theory, discussed and

analysed, was found subsequently all the world over. The tabu, the

Polynesian word and the Polynesian custom, has served as prototype and

eponym to similar regulations found among all the savage and barbarous

as well as civilised races. Totemism, found first among one tribe of

North American Indians and brought to light by the work of Frazer,

has later on been documented so widely and fully from everywhere,

that in re-writing his early small book, its historian could fill out

four volumes. The conception of mana, discovered in a small Melanesian

community has, by the work of Hubert and Mauss, Marett and others,

been proved of fundamental importance, and there is no doubt that mana,

whether named or unnamed, figures and figures largely in the magical

beliefs and practices of all natives. These are the most classical

and best known examples, and they could be multiplied by others were

it necessary. Phenomena of the 'totemic type' or of the 'mana type'

or of the 'tabu type' are to be found in all ethnographic provinces,

since each of these concepts stands for a fundamental attitude of

the savage towards reality.

So with the Kula, if it represents a novel, but not freakish, indeed,

a fundamental type of human activity and of the mental attitude of man,

we may expect to find allied and kindred phenomena in various other

ethnographic provinces. And we may be on the lookout for economic

transactions, expressing a reverential, almost worshipping attitude

towards the valuables exchanged or handled; implying a novel type of

ownership, temporary, intermittent, and cumulative; involving a vast

and complex social mechanism and systems of economic enterprises,

by means of which it is carried out. Such is the Kula type of

semi-economic, semi-ceremonial activities. It would be futile, no

doubt, to expect that exact replicas of this institution should be

found anywhere and with the same details, such as the circular path on

which the valuables move, the fixed direction in which each class has

to travel, and existence of solicitory and intermediate gifts. All

these technicalities are important and interesting, but they are

probably connected in one way or another with the special local

conditions of the Kula. What we can expect to find in other parts

of the world are the fundamental ideas of the Kula, and its social

arrangements in their main outline, and for these the field-worker

might be on the look-out.

For the theoretical student, mainly interested in problems of

evolution, the Kula might supply some reflections about the origins

of wealth and value, of trade and economic relations in general. It

might also shed some light upon the development of ceremonial life, and

upon the influence of economic aims and ambitions upon the evolution

of intertribal intercourse and of primitive international law. For

the student mainly viewing the problems of Ethnology from the point

of view of the contact of cultures, and interested in the spread of

institutions, beliefs and objects by transmission, the Kula is no less

important. Here is a new type of inter-tribal contact, of relations

between several communities slightly but definitely differing in

culture, and a relation not spasmodic or accidental but regulated

and permanent. Quite apart from the fact that in trying to explain

how the Kula relationship between the various tribes originated,

we are confronted with a definite problem of culture contact.

These few remarks must suffice, as I cannot enter into any theoretical

speculations myself. There is one aspect of the Kula, however, to

which attention must be drawn from the point of view of its theoretical

importance. We have seen that this institution presents several aspects

closely intertwined and influencing one another. To take only two,

economic enterprise and magical ritual form one inseparable whole,

the forces of the magical belief and the efforts of man moulding and

influencing one another. How this is happening has been described

before in detail in the previous chapters. [100]

But it seems to me that a deeper analysis and comparison of the

manner in which two aspects of culture functionally depend on one

another might afford some interesting material for theoretical

reflection. Indeed, it seems to me that there is room for a new

type of theory. The succession in time, and the influence of

the previous stage upon the subsequent, is the main subject of

evolutional studies, such as are practised by the classical school

of British Anthropology (Tylor, Frazer, Westermarck, Sydney Hartland,

Crawley). The ethnological school (Ratzel, Foy, Gräbner, W. Schmidt,

Rivers, and Eliott-Smith) studies the influence of cultures by contact,

infiltration and transmission. The influence of environment on cultural

institutions and race is studied by anthropo-geography (Ratzel and

others). The influence on one another of the various aspects of an

institution, the study of the social and psychological mechanism on

which the institution is based, are a type of theoretical studies which

has been practised up till now in a tentative way only, but I venture

to foretell will come into their own sooner or later. This kind of

research will pave the way and provide the material for the others.

At one or two places in the previous chapters, a somewhat detailed

digression was made in order to criticise the view about the economic

nature of primitive man, as it survives in our mental habits as well

as in some text books--the conception of a rational being who wants

nothing but to satisfy his simplest needs and does it according to

the economic principle of least effort. This economic man always

knows exactly where his material interests lie, and makes for them

in a straight line. At the bottom of the so-called materialistic

conception of history lies a somewhat analogous idea of a human

being, who, in everything he devises and pursues, has nothing but

his material advantage of a purely utilitarian type at heart. Now I

hope that whatever the meaning of the Kula might be for Ethnology,

for the general science of culture, the meaning of the Kula will

consist in being instrumental to dispel such crude, rationalistic

conceptions of primitive mankind, and to induce both the speculator

and the observer to deepen the analysis of economic facts. Indeed, the

Kula shows us that the whole conception of primitive value; the very

incorrect habit of calling all objects of value 'money' or 'currency';

the current ideas of primitive trade and primitive ownership--all

these have to be revised in the light of our institution.

At the beginning of this book, in the Introduction, I, in a way,

promised the reader that he should receive a vivid impression of the

events enabling him to see them in their native perspective, at the

same time without for one moment losing sight of the method by which

I have obtained my data. I have tried to present everything as far

as possible in terms of concrete fact, letting the natives speak for

themselves, perform their transactions, pursue their activities before

the reader's mental vision. I have tried to pave my account with fact

and details, equip it with documents, with figures, with instances of

actual occurrence. But at the same time, my conviction, as expressed

over and over again, is that what matters really is not the detail,

not the fact, but the scientific use we make of it. Thus the details

and technicalities of the Kula acquire their meaning in so far only

as they express some central attitude of mind of the natives, and

thus broaden our knowledge, widen our outlook and deepen our grasp

of human nature.

What interests me really in the study of the native is his outlook

on things, his Weltanschauung, the breath of life and reality which

he breathes and by which he lives. Every human culture gives its

members a definite vision of the world, a definite zest of life. In

the roamings over human history, and over the surface of the earth,

it is the possibility of seeing life and the world from the various

angles, peculiar to each culture, that has always charmed me most,

and inspired me with real desire to penetrate other cultures, to

understand other types of life.

To pause for a moment before a quaint and singular fact; to be

amused at it, and see its outward strangeness; to look at it as a

curio and collect it into the museum of one's memory or into one's

store of anecdotes--this attitude of mind has always been foreign and

repugnant to me. Some people are unable to grasp the inner meaning and

the psychological reality of all that is outwardly strange, at first

sight incomprehensible, in a different culture. These people are not

born to be ethnologists. It is in the love of the final synthesis,

achieved by the assimilation and comprehension of all the items of

a culture and still more in the love of the variety and independence

of the various cultures that lies the test of the real worker in the

true Science of Man.

There is, however, one point of view deeper yet and more important than

the love of tasting of the variety of human modes of life, and that is

the desire to turn such knowledge into wisdom. Though it may be given

to us for a moment to enter into the soul of a savage and through his

eyes to look at the outer world and feel ourselves what it must feel

to him to be himself--yet our final goal is to enrich and deepen our

own world's vision, to understand our own nature and to make it finer,

intellectually and artistically. In grasping the essential outlook of

others, with the reverence and real understanding, due even to savages,

we cannot but help widening our own. We cannot possibly reach the final

Socratic wisdom of knowing ourselves if we never leave the narrow

confinement of the customs, beliefs and prejudices into which every

man is born. Nothing can teach us a better lesson in this matter of

ultimate importance than the habit of mind which allows us to treat

the beliefs and values of another man from his point of view. Nor

has civilised humanity ever needed such tolerance more than now,

when prejudice, ill will and vindictiveness are dividing each European

nation from another, when all the ideals, cherished and proclaimed as

the highest achievements of civilisation, science and religion, have

been thrown to the winds. The Science of Man, in its most refined and

deepest version should lead us to such knowledge and to tolerance and

generosity, based on the understanding of other men's point of view.

The study of Ethnology--so often mistaken by its very votaries for an

idle hunting after curios, for a ramble among the savage and fantastic

shapes of "barbarous customs and crude superstitions"--might become one

of the most deeply philosophic, enlightening and elevating disciplines

of scientific research. Alas! the time is short for Ethnology, and

will this truth of its real meaning and importance dawn before it is

too late?

NOTES

[1] The Family among the Australian Aborigines: A Sociological

Study. London: University of London Press, 1913.

[2] "The Natives of Mailu: Preliminary Results of the Robert Mond

Research Work in British New Guinea." Transactions of the Royal

Society of South Australia, vol. xxxix., 1915.

[3] The hiri, as these expeditions are called in Motuan, have been

described with a great wealth of detail and clearness of outline by

Captain F. Barton, in C. G. Seligman's "The Melanesians of British

New Guinea," Cambridge, 1910, Chapter viii.

[4] Cf: "The Mailu," by B. Malinowski, in Transactions of the

R. Society of S. Australia, 1915; Chapter iv. 4, pp. 612 to 629.

[5] Op. cit. Chapter xl.

[6] On this point of method again, we are indebted to the Cambridge

School of Anthropology for having introduced the really scientific

way of dealing with the question. More especially in the writings

of Haddon, Rivers and Seligman, the distinction between inference

and observation is always clearly drawn, and we can visualise with

perfect precision the conditions under which the work was done.

[7] I may note at once that there were a few delightful exceptions to

that, to mention only my friends Billy Hancock in the Trobriands;

M. Raffael Brudo, another pearl trader; and the missionary,

Mr. M. K. Gilmour.

[8] According to a useful habit of the terminology of science, I

use the word Ethnography for the empirical and descriptive results

of the science of Man, and the word Ethnology for speculative and

comparative theories.

[9] The legendary "early authority" who found the natives only

beastly and without customs is left behind by a modern writer, who,

speaking about the Southern Massim with whom he lived and worked

"in close contact" for many years, says:--"...We teach lawless men to

become obedient, inhuman men to love, and savage men to change." And

again:--"Guided in his conduct by nothing but his instincts and

propensities, and governed by his unchecked passions...." "Lawless,

inhuman and savage!" A grosser misstatement of the real state of things

could not be invented by anyone wishing to parody the Missionary point

of view. Quoted from the Rev. C. W. Abel, of the London Missionary

Society, "Savage Life in New Guinea," no date.

[10] For instance, the tables of circulation of the valuable axe

blades, op. cit., pp. 531, 532.

[11] In this book, besides the adjoining Table, which does not strictly

belong to the class of document of which I speak here, the reader will

find only a few samples of synoptic tables, such as the list of Kula

partners mentioned and analysed in Chapter XIII, Division II, the list

of gifts and presents in Chapter VI, Division VI, not tabularised,

only described; the synoptic data of a Kula expedition in Chapter

XVI, and the table of Kula magic given in Chapter XVII. Here, I have

not wanted to overload the account with charts, etc., preferring to

reserve them till the full publication of my material.

[12] It was soon after I had adopted this course that I received a

letter from Dr. A. H. Gardiner, the well-known Egyptologist, urging

me to do this very thing. From his point of view as archæologist,

he naturally saw the enormous possibilities for an Ethnographer of

obtaining a similar body of written sources as have been preserved

to us from ancient cultures, plus the possibility of illuminating

them by personal knowledge of the full life of that culture.

[13] The best accounts we possess of the inland tribes are

those of W. H. Williamson, "The Mafulu," 1912, and of C. Keysser,

"Aus dem Leben der Kaileute," in R. Neuhauss, "Deutsch Neu Guinea,"

Vol. III. Berlin, 1911. The preliminary publications of G. Landtmann on

the Kiwai, "Papuan magic in the Building of Houses," "Acta Arboenses,

Humanora." I. Abo, 1920, and "The Folk-Tales of the Kiwai Papuans,"

Helsingfors, 1917, promise that the full account will dispel some

of the mysteries surrounding the Gulf of Papua. Meanwhile a good

semi-popular account of these natives is to be found in W. N. Beaver's

"Unexplored New Guinea," 1920. Personally I doubt very much whether

the hill tribes and the swamp tribes belong to the same stock or

have the same culture. Compare also the most recent contribution

to this problem: "Migrations of Cultures in British New Guinea,"

by A. C. Haddon, Huxley Memorial Lecture for 1921, published by the

R. Anthrop. Institute.

[14] See C. G. Seligman, "The Melanesians of British New Guinea,"

Cambridge, 1910.

[15] Cf. C. G. Seligman, op. cit., p. 5.

[16] A number of good portraits of the S. Massim type are to be found

in the valuable book of the Rev. H. Newton, "In Far New Guinea," 1914,

and in the amusingly written though superficial and often unreliable

booklet of the Rev. C. W. Abel (London Missionary Society), "Savage

Life in New Guinea" (No date).

[17] See Table in the Introduction (p. 16), and also Chapters XVI

and XX.

[18] Cf. Professor C. G. Seligman, op. cit., Chapters XL and XLII.

[19] Professor C. G. Seligman, op. cit., Chapters XXXV, XXXVI, XXXVII.

[20] Cf. Professor C. G. Seligman, Chapters XXXVII and XXXVIII.

[21] My knowledge of the Dobuans is fragmentary, derived from three

short visits in their district, from conversation with several Dobu

natives whom I had in my service, and from frequent parallels and

allusions about Dobuan customs, which are met when doing field-work

among the Southern Trobrianders. There is a short, sketchy account

of certain of their customs and beliefs by the Rev. W. E. Bromilow,

first missionary in Dobu, which I have also consulted, in the records

of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.

[22] Professor C. G. Seligman, op. cit., pp. 170 and 171; 187 and 188

about the Koita and Motu; and B. Malinowski, The Mailu, pp. 647-652.

[23] Comp. D. Jenness and A. Ballantyne, "The Northern

d'Entrecasteaux," Oxford, 1920, Chapter XII.

[24] I spent about a month in these islands, and found the

natives surprisingly intractable and difficult to work with

ethnographically. The Amphlett "boys" are renowned as good boat-hands,

but in general they are not such capable and willing workers as

the Dobuans.

[25] Already Dr. C. G. Seligman has noticed that there are people

of an outstanding fine physical type among the Northern Massim,

of whom the Trobrianders form the Western section, people who are

"generally taller (often very notably so) than the individuals of the

short-faced, broad-nosed type, in whom the bridge of the nose is very

low." Op. cit., p. 8.

[26] I have dealt with the subject of garden work in the Trobriands

and with its economic importance more fully in an article entitled

"The Primitive Economics of the Trobriand Islanders" in The Economic

Journal, March, 1921.

[27] This does not mean that the general economic conclusions

are wrong. The economic nature of Man is as a rule illustrated on

imaginary savages for didactic purposes only, and the conclusions

of the authors are in reality based on their study of the facts of

developed economics. But, nevertheless, quite apart from the fact

that pedagogically it is a wrong principle to make matters look more

simple by introducing a falsehood, it is the Ethnographer's duty and

right to protest against the introduction from outside of false facts

into his own field of study.

[28] Compare Professor C. G. Seligman, op. cit., pp. 663-668; also the

Author, article on "War and Weapons among the Trobriand Islanders,"

in Man, January, 1918.

[29] Compare the Author's article on "Fishing and Fishing Magic in

the Trobriands," Man, June, 1918.

[30] The discovery of the existence of "linked" totems, and the

introduction of this term and conception are due to Professor

C. G. Seligman. op. cit., pp. 9, 11; see also Index.

[31] See the Author's article, "Baloma, Spirits of the Dead," Part

VII, J.R.A.I., 1917, where this statement has been substantiated

with abundant evidence. Further information obtained during another

expedition to the Trobriands, established by an additional wealth of

detail the complete ignorance of physiological fatherhood.

[32] See the Author's article "Baloma, Spirits of the Dead," quoted

above.

[33] I am using the words religion and magic according to Sir James

Frazer's distinction (see "Golden Bough," vol. I). Frazer's definition

suits the Kiriwinian facts much better than any other one. In fact,

although I started my field work convinced that the theories of

religion and magic expounded in the "Golden Bough" are inadequate,

I was forced by all my observations in New Guinea to come over to

Frazer's position.

[34] Compare Professor C. G. Seligman, op. cit., the parallel

description of the social institutions in the Trobriands, Marshall

Bennetts, Woodlark Island and the Loughlans, Chapters XLIX-LV.

[35] By "current view," I mean such as is to be found in text-books

and in passing remarks, scattered through economic and ethnological

literature. As a matter of fact, Economics is a subject very seldom

touched upon either in theoretical works on Ethnology, or in accounts

of field-work. I have enlarged on this deficiency in the article on

"Primitive Economics," published in the Economic Journal, March, 1921.

The best analysis of the problem of savage economy is to be found, in

spite of its many shortcomings, in K. Bücher's "Industrial Evolution,"

English Translation, 1901. on primitive trade, however, his views

are inadequate. In accordance with his general view that savages

have no national economy, he maintains that any spread of goods

among natives is achieved by non-economic means, such as robbery,

tributes and gifts. The information contained in the present volume

is incompatible with Bücher's views, nor could he have maintained

them had he been acquainted with Barton's description of the Hiri

(contained in Seligman's "Melanesians.")

A summary of the research done on Primitive Economics, showing

incidentally, how little real, sound work has been accomplished, will

be found in Pater W. Kopper's "Die Ethnologische Wirtschaftsforschung"

in Anthropos, X--XI, 1915-16, pp. 611-651, and 971-1079. The article

is very useful, where the author summarises the views of others.

[36] Professor C. G. Seligman, op. cit., p. 93, states that arm-shells

toea, as they are called by the Motu, are traded from the Port Moresby

district westward to the Gulf of Papua. Among the Motu and Koita,

near Port Moresby, they are highly valued, and nowadays attain very

high prices, up to £30, much more than is paid for the same article

among the Massim.

[37] This and the following quotations are from the Author's

preliminary article on the Kula in Man, July, 1920. Article number 51,

p. 100.

[38] In order not to be guilty of inconsistency in using loosely the

word "ceremonial" I shall define it briefly. I shall call an action

ceremonial, if it is (1) public; (2) carried on under observance

of definite formalities; (3) if it has sociological, religious,

or magical import, and carries with it obligations.

[39] This is not a fanciful construction of what an erroneous opinion

might be, for I could give actual examples proving that such opinions

have been set forth, but as I am not giving here a criticism of

existing theories of Primitive Economics, I do not want to overload

this chapter with quotations.

[40] It is hardly necessary perhaps to make it quite clear that all

questions of origins, of development or history of the institutions

have been rigorously ruled out of this work. The mixing up of

speculative or hypothetical views with an account of facts is, in my

opinion an unpardonable sin against ethnographic method.

[41] Comparing the frail yet clumsy native canoe with a fine European

yacht, we feel inclined to regard the former almost in the light of a

joke. This is the pervading note in many amateur ethnographic accounts

of sailing, where cheap fun is made by speaking of roughly hewn

dug-outs in terms of "dreadnoughts" or "Royal Yachts," just as simple,

savage chiefs are referred to as "Kings" in a jocular vein. Such humour

is doubtless natural and refreshing, but when we approach these matters

scientifically, on the one hand we must refrain from any distortion of

facts, and on the other, enter into the finer shades of the natives'

thought and feeling with regard to his own, creations.

[42] The crab-claw sails, used on the South Coast, from Mailu

where I used to see them, to westwards where they are used with the

double-masted lakatoi of Port Moresby, are still more picturesque. In

fact, I can hardly imagine anything more strangely impressive than

a fleet of crab-claw sailed canoes. They have been depicted in the

British New Guinea stamp, as issued by Captain Francis Barton, the late

Governor of the Colony. See also Plate XII of Seligman's "Melanesians."

[43] A constructive expedient to achieve a symmetrical stability is

exemplified by the Mailu system of canoe-building, where a platform

bridges two parallel, hollowed-out logs. Cf. Author's article in the

Transactions of the Royal Society of S. Australia, Vol. XXXIX, 1915,

pp. 494-706. Chapter IV, 612-599. Plates XXXV-XXXVII.

[44] The whole tribal life is based on a continuous material give

and take; cf. the above mentioned article in the Economic Journal,

March, 1921, and the digression on this subject in Chapter VI,

Division IV-VII.

[45] This view has been more fully elaborated in the article on

"Primitive Economics" in the Economic Journal, March, 1921; compare

also the remarks on systematic magic in Chapter XVII, Division VII.

[46] The way of hiring a masawa (sea-going) canoe is different from the

usual transaction, when hiring a fishing canoe. In the latter case,

the payment consists of giving part of the yield of fish, and this

is called uwaga. The same term applies to all payments for objects

hired. Thus, if fishing nets or hunting implements, or a small canoe

for trading along the coast are hired out, part of the proceeds are

given as uwaga.

[47] The words within brackets in this and in some of the following

spells are free additions, necessary to make the meaning clear in

the English version. They are implied by the context in the native

original, though not explicitly contained.

[48] Compare therefore Chapter XII, Division IV.

[49] All this is discussed at length in Chapter XVII, Division IV.

[50] It is necessary to be acquainted with the mythology of

canoe-building and of the Kula (Chapter XII) in order to understand

thoroughly the meaning of this spell.

[51] Compare the linguistic analysis of this spell in Chapter XVIII.

[52] Cf. Chapter II, Divisions III and IV, and some of the following

Divisions of this Chapter.

[53] I am adducing these views not for any controversial purposes,

but to justify and make clear why I stress certain general features of

Trobriand Economic Sociology. My contentions might run the danger of

appearing as gratuitous truisms if not thus justified. The opinion

that primitive humanity and savages have no individual property

is an old prejudice shared by many modern writers, especially in

support of communistic theories, and the so-called materialistic

view of history. The "communism of savages" is a phrase very often

read, and needs no special quotation. The views of individual

search for food and household economy are those of Karl Bücher,

and they have directly influenced all the best modern writings

on Primitive Economics. Finally, the view that we have done with

Primitive Economics if we have described the way in which the natives

procure their food, is obviously a fundamental premise of all the

naïve, evolutionary theories which construct the successive stages

of economic development. This view is summarised in the following

sentence: "...In many simple communities, the actual food quest,

and operations immediately arising from it, occupy by far the greater

part of the people's time and energy, leaving little opportunity for

the satisfaction of any lesser needs." This sentence, quoted out of

"Notes and Queries on Anthropology," p. 160, article on the "Economics

of the Social Group," represents what may be called the official view

of contemporary Ethnology on the subject, and in perusing the rest

of the article, it can be easily seen that all the manifold economic

problems, with which we are dealing in this book, have been so far

more or less neglected.

[54] These views had to be adduced at length, although touched upon

already in Chapter II, Division IV, because they imply a serious error

with regard to human nature in one of its most fundamental aspects. We

can show up their fallacy on one example only, that of the Trobriand

Society, but even this is enough to shatter their universal validity

and show that the problem must be re-stated. The criticised views

contain very general propositions, which, however, can be answered

only empirically. And it is the duty of the field Ethnographer to

answer and correct them. Because a statement is very general, it can

none the less be a statement of empirical fact. General views must

not be mixed up with hypothetical ones. The latter must be banished

from field work; the former cannot receive too much attention.

[55] As a matter of fact, this custom is not so prominent in

the Trobriands as in other Massim districts and all over the

Papuo-Melanesian world, cf. for instance Seligman, op. cit., p. 56

and Plate VI, Fig. 6.

[56] Again, in explaining value, I do not wish to trace its possible

origins, but I try simply to show what are the actual and observable

elements into which the natives' attitude towards the object valued

can be analysed.

[57] These natives have no idea of physiological fatherhood. See

Chapter II, Division VI.

[58] Compare Plate XXXIII, where the yam houses of a headman are

filled by his wife's brothers.

[59] This advantage was probably in olden days a mutual one. Nowadays,

when the fishermen can earn about ten or twenty times more by diving

for pearls than by performing their share of the wasi, the exchange is

as a rule a great burden on them. It is one of the most conspicuous

examples of the tenacity of native custom that in spite of all

the temptation which pearling offers them and in spite of the great

pressure exercised upon them by the white traders, the fishermen never

try to evade a wasi, and when they have received the inaugurating gift,

the first calm day is always given to fishing, and not to pearling.

[60] Compare the linguistic analysis of the original text of this

spell, given in Chapter XVIII.

[61] Koyatabu--the mountain on the North shore of Fergusson;

Kamsareta,--the highest hill on Domdom,--in the Amphletts;

Koyava'u--the mountain opposite Dobu island, on the North shore of

Dawson Straits; Gorebubu--the volcano on Dobu island.

[62] The prefix bo- has three different etymological derivations, each

carrying its own shade of meaning. First, it may be the first part

of the word bomala, in which case, its meaning will be "ritual" or

"sacred." Secondly, it may be derived from the word bu'a, areca-nut,

a substance very often used and mentioned in magic, both because it

is a narcotic, and a beautiful, vermilion dye. Thirdly, the prefix

may be a derivation from butia, the sweet scented flower made into

wreaths, in which case it would usually be bway, but sometimes might

become bo-, and would carry the meaning of "festive," "decorated." To

a native, who does not look upon a spell as an ethnological document,

but as an instrument of magical power, the prefix probably conveys

all three meanings at once, and the word "ritual" covers best all

these three meanings.

[63] See Division II of Chapter V.

[64] The word tabu, in the meaning of taboo--prohibition--is used

in its verbal form in the language of the Trobriands, but not very

often. The noun "prohibition," "sacred thing," is always bomala,

used with suffixed personal pronouns.

[65] At a later date, I hope to work out certain historical hypotheses

with regard to migrations and cultural strata in Eastern New Guinea. A

considerable number of independent indices seem to corroborate

certain simple hypotheses as to the stratification of the various

cultural elements.

[66] The word vineylida suggests the former belief, as vine--female,

lida--coral stone.

[67] Professor Seligman has described the belief in similar beings on

the North-East Coast of New Guinea. At Gelaria, inland of Bartle Bay,

the flying witches can produce a double, or "sending," which they

call labuni. "Labuni exists within women, and can be commanded by any

woman who has had children.... It was said that the labuni existed in,

or was derived from, an organ called ipona, situated in the flank,

and literally meaning egg or eggs." op. cit., p. 640. The equivalence

of beliefs here is evident.

[68] Not all the spells which I have obtained have been equally well

translated and commented upon. This one, although very valuable, for

it is one of the spells of the old chief Maniyuwa, and one which had

been recited when his corpse was brought over from Dobu by his son

Maradiana, was obtained early in my ethnographic career, and Gomaya,

Maradiana's son, from whom I got it, is a bad commentator. Nor could

I find any other competent informant later on, who could completely

elucidate it for me.

[69] Such reconstructions are legitimate for an Ethnographer, as

well as for a historian. But it is a duty of the former as well

as of the latter to show his sources as well as to explain how he

has manipulated them. In one of the next chapters, Chapter XVIII,

Divisions XIV-XVII, a sample of this methodological aspect of the

work will be given, although the full elaboration of sources and

methods must be postponed to another publication.

[70] See Chapter II, Division VII.

[71] I cannot tell what sort of influence this would be, exercised

by a sister over her brother in Dobu. I do not even know whether,

in that district, there obtains the same taboo between brother and

sister as in the Trobriands.

[72] This is the information which I obtained during my short visit

to Murua (Woodlark Island), and which was confirmed by the Trobriand

Islanders. Professor Seligman states, also, that the sepulchral pots,

found in this island come from the Amphletts. op. cit., p. 731. Compare

also pp. 15 and 535.

[73] See Chapter VI, Division VI.

[74] The reader will note that this is the same name, which another

mythical dog bore, also of the Lukuba clan as all dogs are, the

one namely from whom the kayga'u magic is traced. Cf. Chapter X,

Division V.

[75] Cf. Professor C. G. Seligman, "The Melanesians," Chapter LIV,

"Burial and Mourning Ceremonies" (among the natives of the Trobriand

Islands, of Woodlark and the Marshall Bennetts).

[76] Compare also No. VI (A), in the Synoptic Table of Kula magic,

in Chapter XVII, p. 418.

[77] There can be no better expression to denote the mutual relation of

all these ideas than that used by Frazer to describe one of the typical

forms of magic thought, the 'contagion of ideas.' The subjective,

psychological process leads the natives to the belief in magical

contagion of things.

[78] It will be noted, that this is the third meaning in which the

term pokala is used by the natives. (Cf. Chapter VI, Division VI.)

[79] See the Author's Memoir, "The Natives of Mailu" in Transactions

of the R. Society of S. Australia for 1915, p. 598.

[80] These views have been elaborated in the previously quoted article

on "Primitive Economics" in the Economic Journal, March, 1921.

[81] The association of magic with any vital interest is demonstrated

by the case of pearling. Here, through the advent of white men,

a new and very lucrative and absorbing pursuit has opened up for

the natives. A form of magic is now in existence, associated with

this fishing. This of course apparently contradicts the native

dogma that magic cannot be invented. The natives, if faced with

this contradiction, explain that it is really an old magic of shell

fishing which refers to all the shells found at the bottom of the

Lagoon, but which so far had only been used with regard to fishing

for the Conus. In fact, this magic is nothing but the adaptation of

the mwali (armshell) magic to the pearls. I doubt, none the less,

whether even such a transference or adaptation would have taken place

before the foundations of native belief and custom had been shaken

by the well-intentioned but not always wise and beneficent teachings

and rulings of the white man and by the introduction of trade.

[82] See article by the Author on the "Baloma, spirits of the dead

in the Trobriand islands." J. A. I., 1917.

[83] An example of this ill-judged attitude of interference is to be

found even in a book written by an exceptionally well-informed and

enlightened missionary, "In Far New Guinea," by Henry Newton. In

describing the feasts and dancing of the natives, he admits these

to be a necessity of tribal life: "On the whole the feasting and

dancing are good; they give excitement and relaxation to the young

men, and tone the drab colours of life." He himself tells us that,

"the time comes when the old men stop the dancing. They begin to growl

because the gardens are neglected, and they want to know if dancing

will give the people food, so the order is given that the drums are

to be hung up, and the people settle down to work." But in spite

of Mr. Newton's recognition of this natural, tribal authority, in

spite of the fact that he really admits the views given in our text,

he cannot refrain from saying: "Seriously, however, for the benefit

of the people themselves, it would be a good thing if there could

be some regulations--if dancing were not allowed after midnight,

for while it lasts nothing else is done.--The gardens suffer and

it would help the people to learn self-restraint and so strengthen

their characters if the dancing could be regulated." He goes on to

admit quite candidly that it would be difficult to enforce such a

regulation because "to the native mind, it would seem that it was

the comfort of the white man, not the benefit of the native which

was the reason for the regulation." And to my mind also, I am afraid!

The following quotations from a recent scientific work published by

the Oxford Press--"The Northern d'Entrecasteaux," by D. Jenness, and

the Rev. A. Ballantyne, 1920--are also examples of the dangerous and

heedless tampering with the one authority that now binds the natives,

the one discipline they can be relied upon to observe--that of their

own tribal tradition. The relations of a church member who died, were

"counselled to drop the harsher elements in their mourning," and

instead of the people being bidden "to observe each jot and tittle

of their old, time-honoured rites," they were advised from that day

forth to leave off "those which had no meaning." It is strange to find

a trained ethnologist, confessing that old, time-honoured rites have

no meaning! And one might feel tempted to ask: for whom it is that

these customs have no meaning, for the natives or for the writers of

the passage quoted?

The following incident is even more telling. A native headman of an

inland village was supposed to keep concealed in his hut a magic pot,

the "greatest ruler of winds, rain, and sunshine," a pot which had

"come down from times immemorial," which according to some of the

natives "in the beginning simply was." According to the Authors,

the owner of the pot used to descend on the coastal natives and "levy

tribute," threatening them with the magical powers of the pot if they

refused. Some of the coastal natives went to the Missionary and asked

him to interfere or get the magistrate to do so. It was arranged they

should all go with the Missionary and seize the pot. But on the day

"only one man turned up." When the Missionary went, however, the

natives blocked his path, and only through threats of punishments by

the magistrate, were they induced to temporarily leave the village and

thus to allow him to seize the pot! A few days later the Missionary

accordingly took possession of the pot, which he broke. The Authors go

on to say that after this incident "everyone was contented and happy;"

except, one might add, the natives and those who would see in such

occurrences the speedy destruction of native culture, and the final

disintegration of the race.

[84] I have not seen the site of Suloga myself. Interesting details

are to be found in "The Melanesians" of Professor Seligman, who

visited the spot himself, and who has collected a number of specimens

in the locality, as well as many data about the production of the

blades. Op. cit., pp. 530-533.

[85] Cf. Op. cit., pp. 670-672.

[86] Op. cit., description of the Walaga feast, pp. 594-603.

[87] See the Author's Memoir in the Transactions of the Royal Society

of S. Australia. "The Natives of Mailu," pp. 580-588.

[88] Cf. Professor C. G. Seligman. Op. cit., Chapter XLIV.

[89] Cf. Professor C. G. Seligman. Op. cit., p. 584.

[90] The ethnographic researches at present carried on in Su'a'u

by Mr. W. E. Armstrong, of Cambridge, will no doubt throw light on

this subject.

[91] Seligman. Op. cit., p. 524.

[92] Op. cit., p. 538.

[93] Ibid.

[94] Cf. Op. cit., pp. 536-537.

[95] I cannot follow Professor Seligman in his use of the word

currency, which is not very clearly defined by him. This word can

be correctly applied to the armshells, spondylus discs, big polished

blades of green stones, etc., only if we give it simply the meaning of

"objects" or "tokens of wealth." Currency as a rule means a medium

of exchange and standard of value, and none of the Massim valuables

fulfil these functions.

[96] A short article on this subject has been published by

the Rev. M. Gilmour, now head of the Methodist Mission in New

Guinea. (Annual Report of British New Guinea, 1904-5, p. 71.) I

used this article in the field, going over it with several

natives of Kavataria, and I found it substantially correct,

and on the whole formulated with precision. The need for extreme

compression of statement has, however, led the Author into one or two

ambiguities. Thus, the constant mention of "feasting" might give a

wrong impression, for it is always the matter of a public distribution

of food, which is then eaten apart, or in small groups, while the

word "feast" suggests eating in common. Again, the data about the

"sea-chief," as Mr. Gilmour calls the leader of the privileged clan in

Kavataria (cf. Chapter IX, Division III), seemed to me over-stated,

when he is said to be "supreme," to have "the right of determining

an expedition," and especially when it is said that he "had the

right of first choice of a canoe." This latter phrase must involve a

misunderstanding; as we saw, each sub-clan (that is, each sub-division

of the village) build their own canoe, and a subsequent swapping and

free choice are out of the question. Mr. Gilmour was fully acquainted

with the facts of the Kula, as I learnt from personal conversation. In

this article, he mentions it only in one phrase, saying that some of

the expeditions "were principally concerned in the exchange of the

circulated articles of native wealth ... in which trade was only a

secondary consideration."

[97] Mr. Gilmour's statement to the contrary namely that "the trips

from the West--Kavataria and Kaileuna--were pure trading expeditions"

(loc. cit.)--is incorrect. First, I am inclined to think that some

of the Kavataria men did make the Kula in the Amphletts, where they

always stopped on their way South, but this might have been only on a

very small scale, and entirely overshadowed by the main object of the

expedition, which was the trade with the Southern Koya. Secondly, as

to the natives of Kayleula, I am certain that they made the Kula, from

conclusive data collected both in the Trobriands and in the Amphletts.

[98] I have given a more detailed description of this process which

I had often opportunities to observe among the Mailu on the South

coast. I never saw the making of an armshell in the Trobriands, but

the two processes are identical according to detailed information

which I obtained. (Compare the monograph on "The Natives of Mailu" by

the Author, in the Transactions of the Royal Society of S. Australia,

1915, pp. 643-644.)

[99] Both statements of Professor Seligman in the "Melanesians"

(p. 89) are in entire agreement with the information I obtained among

the Mailu. See Transactions of the Royal Society of S. Australia,

1915, pp. 620-629.

[100] Also in the before quoted article in the Economic Journal,

March, 1921.