Gebobo Spell.

“My father, my mother … Kula, mwasila.” This short exordium, running in the compressed style proper to magical beginnings, is rather enigmatic, except for the mention of the Kula and mwasila, which explain themselves. The second part is less obscure:

“I shall fill my canoe with bagido’u, I shall fill my canoe with bagiriku, I shall fill my canoe with bagidudu, etc.” All the specific names of the necklaces are enumerated. The last part runs as follows: “I shall anchor in the open sea, and my renown will go to the Lagoon, I shall anchor in the Lagoon, and my renown will go to the open sea. My companions will be on the open sea and on the Lagoon. My renown is like thunder, my treading is like earthquake.”

This last part is similar to several of the other formulæ. This rite is obviously a Kula rite, judging from the spell, but the natives maintain that its special virtue is to make the food stuffs, loaded into the canoe, last longer. After this rite is over, the loading is done quickly, the lilava is put into its place of honour, and with it the best food to be eaten in Dobu. Some other choice food to serve as pokala (offerings) is also put in the gebobo, to be offered to overseas partners; on it, the rest of the trade, called pari, is piled, and right on top of all are the personal belongings of the usagelu and the toliwaga in their respective baskets, shaped like travelling bags.

The people from the inland villages, kulila’odila, as they are called, are assembled on the beach. With them stand the women, the children, the old men, and the few people left to guard the village. The master of the fleet gets up and addresses the crowd on the shore, more or less in these words:

“Women, we others sail; you remain in the village and look after the gardens and the houses; you must keep chaste. When you get into the bush to get wood, may not one of you lag behind. When you go to the gardens to do work keep together. Return together with your younger sisters.”

He also admonishes the people from the other villages to keep away, never to visit Sinaketa at night or in the evening, and never to come singly into the village. On hearing that, the headman of an inland village will get up and speak in this fashion:

“Not thus, oh, our chief; you go away, and your village will remain here as it is. Look, when you are here we come to see you. You sail away, we shall keep to our villages. When you return, we come again. Perhaps you will give us some betel-nut, some sago, some coco-nuts. Perhaps you will kula to us some necklace of shell beads.”

After these harangues are over, the canoes sail away in a body. Some of the women on the beach may weep at the actual departure, but it is taboo to weep afterwards. The woman are also supposed to keep the taboo, that is, not to walk alone out of the village, not to receive male visitors, in fact, to remain chaste and true to their husbands during their absence. Should a woman commit misconduct, her husband’s canoe would be slow. As a rule there are recriminations between husbands and wives and consequent bad feeling on the return of the party; whether the canoe should be blamed or the wife it is difficult to say.

The women now look out for the rain and thunder, for the sign that the men have opened the lilava (special magical bundle). Then they know that the party has arrived on the beach of Sarubwoyna, and performs now its final magic, and prepares for its entrance into the villages of Tu’utauna, and Bwayowa. The women are very anxious that the men should succeed in arriving at Dobu, and that they should not be compelled by bad weather to return from the Amphletts. They have been preparing special grass skirts to put on, when they meet the returning canoes on the beach; they also hope to receive the sago, which is considered a dainty, and some of the ornaments, which their men bring them back from Dobu. If for any reason the fleet returns prematurely, there is great disappointment throughout the village, because this means the expedition has been a failure, nothing has been brought back to those left at home, and they have no opportunity of wearing their ceremonial dress.

1 Compare the linguistic analysis of the original text of this spell, given in Chapter XVIII. ↑

2 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. ↑