III

Let us pass now to the relation between categories 2 and 3, that is between Kula of two contiguous ‘Kula communities,’ and the Kula within one of them. First of all, in the inland Kula within the same community, there never take place big, wholesale transactions. The circulation of vaygu’a consists of individual exchanges, sometimes more frequent, that is, whenever an overseas expedition has come home laden with many valuables, sometimes done at long intervals. No magic is performed in this type of Kula, and though there is a certain amount of ceremony accompanying each gift, there are no big, public gatherings. A concrete description of an actual case may serve best to illustrate these general statements.

During the eight months I stayed in Omarakana in 1915–1916, I had the opportunity of watching many cases of inland Kula, as there was a constant come and go between Kiriwina and Kitava, and subsequent to each influx of armshells from the East, a series of exchanges took place. In the month of November, To’uluwa went with his canoe on a small expedition across the sea to Kitava, and brought back a good haul of mwali (armshells). He arrived on an evening on the beach of Kaulukuba, and word was sent over to the village that next day he would come up with his trophies. In the morning, blows of conch-shell, heard from the distance, announced the approach of the returning party, and soon, preceded by one of his small sons carrying the conch-shell, To’uluwa made his appearance followed by his companions. Each man carried a few pairs which he had obtained, whilst the chief’s share was brought in on a stick, hanging down in a chaplet (see Plate LX).

The people in the village sat before their huts, and according to native custom, there was no special concourse to meet the chief, nor any outward signs of excitement. The chief went straight to one of his bulaviyaka, that is, one of his wives’ houses, and sat on the platform before it, waiting for some food to come. That would be the place where he would seat himself, if he wanted just to have a domestic chat with some of his wives and children. Had any strangers been there, he would have received them at his place of official reception, in front of his lisiga, the extremely large and high chief’s house, standing in the inner row of yam houses, and facing the main place, the baku (see Plate II). On that occasion he went to the hut of Kadamwasila, his favourite wife, the mother of four sons and one daughter. She is quite old now, but she was the first wife married by To’uluwa himself, that is, not inherited, and there is an unmistakable attachment and affection between the two, even now. Though the chief has several much younger and one or two really fine looking wives, he is usually to be found talking and taking his food with Kadamwasila. He has also a few older wives, whom, according to the custom, he inherited from his predecessor, in that case, his elder brother. The eldest of them, Bokuyoba, the Dean of the Body of the chief’s wives, has been twice inherited; she is now a source of income—for her male kinsmen have to supply yams to the chief—and an object of veneration, and is now even relieved of the duty of cooking the chief’s food.

To’uluwa sat, ate, and talked about his journey to myself and some of the village elders assembled there. He spoke of the amount of mwali at present in Kitava, told us from whom and how he obtained those at which we were then looking, naming the most important ones, and giving bits of their histories. He commented on the state of gardens in Kitava, which in one respect, in the production of the big yams (kuvi) are the admiration of all the surrounding districts. He spoke also about future Kula arrangements, expeditions to arrive from the East in Kiriwina, and of his own planned movements.

On the afternoon of the same day, people from other villages began to assemble, partly to hear the news of the chief’s expedition, partly in order to find out what they could obtain themselves from him. Headmen from all the dependent villages sat in one group round the chief, who now had moved to the official reception ground, in front of his lisiga. Their followers, in company with the chief’s henchmen, and other inhabitants of Omarakana, squatted all over the baku (central place), engaged in conversation. The talk in each group was of the same subjects, and did not differ much from the conversation, I had heard from the chief on his arrival. The newly acquired armshells were handed round, admired, named, and the manner of their acquisition described.

Next day, several soulava (spondylus shell necklaces) were brought to Omarakana by the various men from neighbouring villages to the West, and ceremonially offered to To’uluwa (see Plates LXI, LXII, and Frontispiece). This was, in each case a vaga (opening gift), for which the giver expected to receive his yotile (clinching gift) at once from the store of mwali. In this case we see the influence of chieftainship in the relation between Kula partners. In the inland Kula of Kiriwina, all gifts would be brought to To’uluwa, and he would never have to fetch or carry his presents. Moreover, he would always be given and never give the opening gift (vaga); while his gift would invariably be a yotile. So that the chief sometimes owes a Kula gift to a commoner, but a commoner never owes a gift to a chief. The difference between the rules of procedure here and those of an uvalaku overseas expedition is clear: in a competitive overseas expedition, valuables for exchange are never carried by the visiting party, who only receive gifts and bring them back home; in the inland Kula, the determining factor is the relative social position of the two partners. Gifts are brought to the man of superior by the man of inferior rank, and the latter has also to initiate the exchange.

The following entry is quoted literally from my notes, made in Omarakana, on November the 13th, 1915. “This morning, the headman of Wagaluma brought a bagido’u (fine necklace). At the entrance to the village (it is Omarakana), they (the party) halted, blew the conch shell, put themselves in order. Then, the conch shell blower went ahead, the men of highest rank took the stick with the bagido’u, a boy carrying the heavy wooden bell pendant on a kaboma (wooden dish).” This requires a commentary. The ceremonial way of carrying the spondylus shell necklaces is by attaching each end to a stick, so that the necklace hangs down with the pendant at its lowest point (see Frontispiece and Pl. LXI and LXII). In the case of very long and fine necklaces, in which the pendant is accordingly big and heavy, while the actual necklace is thin and fragile, the pendant has to be taken off and carried apart. Resuming the narrative:—“The headman approached To’uluwa and said: ‘Agukuleya, ikanawo; lagayla lamaye; yoku kayne gala mwali.’ This he said in thrusting the stick into the thatch of the chief’s house.” The words literally mean: ‘My kuleya (food left over), take it; I brought it to-day; have you perhaps no armshells?’ The expression ‘food left over,’ applied to the gift was a depreciating term, meaning something which is an overflow or unwanted scrap. Thus he was ironically depreciating his gift, and at the same time implying that much wealth still remained in his possession. By this, in an oblique manner, he bragged about his own riches, and with the last phrase, expressing doubt as to whether To’uluwa had any armshells, he threw a taunt at the chief. This time the gift was returned immediately by a fine pair of armshells.

It was in connection with the same expedition that the little exchange between two of the chief’s wives took place, mentioned before (in Chapter XI, Division II, under 4) and one or two more domestic Kula acts were performed, a son of To’uluwa offering him a necklace (see Plates LXI and LXII) and receiving a pair of armshells afterwards. Many more transactions took place in those two days or so; sounds of conch shells were heard on all sides as they were blown first in the village from which the men started, then on the way, then at the entrance to Omarakana, and finally at the moment of giving. Again, after some time another blast announced the return gift by To’uluwa, and the receding sounds of the conch marked the stages of the going home of the party. To’uluwa himself never receives a gift with his own hands; it is always hung up in his house or platform, and then somebody of his household takes charge of it; but the commoner receives the armshell himself from the hands of the chief. There was much life and movement in the village during this time of concentrated exchange; parties came and went with vaygu’a, others arrived as mere spectators, and the place was always full of a gazing crowd. The soft sounds of the conch shell, so characteristic of all South Sea experiences, gave a special flavour to the festive and ceremonial atmosphere of those days.

Not all the armshells brought from Kitava were thus at once given away. Some of them were kept for the purposes of more distant Kula; or to be given on some future, special occasion when a present had to be handed over in association with some ceremony. In the inland Kula, there is always an outbreak of transactions whenever a big quantity of valuables is imported into the district. And afterwards, sporadic transactions happen now and then. For the minor partners who had received armshells from To’uluwa would not all of them keep them for any length of time, but part of them would be sooner or later passed on in inland transactions. But, however these valuables might spread over the district, they would be always available when an expedition from another Kula community would come and claim them. When the party from Sinaketa came in March, 1918, to Omarakana, all those who owned armshells would either come to the capital or else be visited in their villages by their Sinaketan partners. Of the 154 or so armshells obtained in Kiriwina on that occasion, only thirty came from To’uluwa himself, and fifty from Omarakana altogether, while the rest were given from other villages, in the following proportions:

Thus the inner Kula does not affect the flow of the main stream, and, however, the valuables might change hands within the ‘Kula community,’ it matters little for the outside flow.