The Spell of the Ta’uya (Conch Shell)
“Mwanita, Mwanita! Come there together; I will make you come there together! Come here together; I will make you come here together! The rainbow appears there; I will make the rainbow appear there! The rainbow appears here; I will make the rainbow here.”
“Who comes ahead with the Kula? I” (here the name of the reciter is uttered), “come ahead with the Kula, I shall be the only chief; I shall be the only old man; I shall be the only one to meet my partner on the road. My renown stands alone; my name is the only one. Beautiful valuables are exchanged here with my partner; Beautiful valuables are exchanged there with my partner; The contents of my partner’s basket are mustered.”
After this exordium there comes a middle part, constructed on the general principle of one word’s being repeated with a series of others. The keyword here is an expression denoting the state of excitement which seizes a partner, and makes him give generous Kula offerings. This word here is repeated first with a series of words, describing the various personal belongings of the partner, his dog, his belt; his tabooed coco-nut and betel-nut; and then, with a new series of terms denoting the different classes of Kula valuables which are expected to be given. This part could therefore be translated thus:—
“A state of excitement seizes his dog, his belt, his gwara” (taboo on coco-nuts and betel-nuts) “his bagido’u necklace, his bagiriku necklace, his bagidudu necklace, etc.” The spell ends in a typical manner: “I shall kula, I shall rob my Kula; I shall steal my Kula; I shall pilfer my Kula. I shall kula so as to make my canoe sink; I shall kula so as to make my outrigger go under. My fame is like thunder, my steps are like earthquake!”
The first word of this spell, mwanita, is the native name for a long worm covered with rings of black armour. I was told that it is mentioned here because of its similarity to the spondylus shell necklaces, which also consist of many rings. I obtained this formula in Sinaketa, hence this interpretation heeds only the necklaces, though the simile might also obviously be extended to armshells, for a number of armshells threaded on a string, as they can be seen on Plate LX, presents also a likeness to the mwanita worm. It may be added here that Sinaketa is one of these Kula communities in which the overseas expeditions are done only in one direction, to the South, from where only the spondylus necklaces are fetched. Its counterpart, Kiriwina, to the North, carries on again only one-sided overseas Kula. The formulæ which I obtained in Kiriwina differ from those of Sinaketa in their main parts: whenever there is a list of spondylus necklaces in a Sinaketan tapwana (main part) a list of the several varieties of armshells would be used in a Kiriwinian tapwana. In Kitava, where, as in several other Kula communities, the overseas expeditions are carried out in both directions, the same formula would be used by the same man with two different main parts, according as to whether he was sailing East to fetch mwali, or West to fetch soulava. No changes, however, would be made in the beginning of a spell.
The sentence ‘come here together’ refers to the collected valuables. The play on ‘there’ and ‘here,’ represented in the native language by the sounds ‘m’ and ‘w,’ which are used as interchangeable formatives, is very frequent in magic; (see Chapter XVIII, Division XII). The rainbow here invoked is a kariyala (magical portent) of this formula. When the conch shell is blown, and the fleet approaches the shore, a rainbow will appear in the skies.
The rest of the exordium is taken up by the usual boasts and exaggerations typical of magic. The middle part needs no commentary. It is clear that the sound of the conch shell is meant to arouse the partner to do his duty eagerly. The magic spoken into the conch shell heightens and strengthens this effect.
