Kwoygapani Spell

“O kwega leaf; O friendly kwega leaf; O kwega leaf hither; O kwega leaf thither!”

“I shall enter through the mouth of the woman of Dobu; I shall come out through the mouth of the man of Dobu. I shall enter through the mouth of the man of Dobu; I shall come out through the mouth of the woman of Dobu.”

“Seducing kwega leaf; enmeshing kwega leaf; the mind of the woman of Dobu is seduced by the kwega leaf, is enmeshed by the kwega leaf.”

The expression “is seduced,” “is enmeshed “by the kwega leaf, is repeated with a string of words such as: “Thy mind, O man of Dobu,” “thy refusal, O woman of Dobu,” “Thy disinclination, O woman of Dobu,” “Thy bowels, thy tongue, thy liver,” going thus over all the organs of understanding and feeling, and over the words which describe these faculties. The last part is identical with that of one or two formulæ previously quoted:

“No more it is my mother; my mother art thou, O woman of Dobu, etc.” (Compare the Kaykakaya and Ka’ubana’i spells of the previous chapter.)

Kwega is a plant, probably belonging to the same family as betel pepper, and its leaves are chewed with areca-nut and lime, when real betel-pods (mwayye) are not available. The kwega is, remarkably enough, invoked in more than one magical formula, instead of the real betel-pod. The middle part is quite clear. In it, the seducing and enmeshing power of the kwega is cast over all the mental faculties of the Dobuan, and on the anatomical seats of these faculties. After the application of this magic, all the resources of the soliciting man are exhausted. He has to give up hope, and take to eating the fruit of Dobu, as his taboo lapses.

Side by side with the Kula, the subsidiary exchange of ordinary goods takes place. In Chapter VI, Division VI, we have classified the various types of give and take, as they are to be found in the Trobriand Islands. The inter-tribal transactions which now take place in Dobu also fit into that scheme. The Kula itself belongs to class (6), ‘Ceremonial Barter with deferred payment.’ The offering of the pari, of landing gifts by the visitors, returned by the talo’i or farewell gifts from the hosts fall into the class (4) of presents more or less equivalent. Finally, between the visitors and the local people there takes place, also, barter pure and simple (gimwali). Between partners, however, there is never a direct exchange of the gimwali type. The local man will as a rule contribute a bigger present, for the talo’i always exceeds the pari in quantity and value, and small presents are also given to the visitors during their stay. Of course, if in the pari there were included gifts of high value, like a stone blade or a good lime spoon, such solicitary gifts would always be returned in strictly equivalent form. The rest would be liberally exceeded in value.

The trade takes place between the visitors and local natives, who are not their partners, but who must belong to the community with whom the Kula is made. Thus, Numanuma, Tu’utauna and Bwayowa are the three communities which form what we have called the ‘Kula community’ or ‘Kula unit,’ with whom the Sinaketans stand in the relation of partnership. And a Sinaketa man will gimwali (trade) only with a man from one of these villages who is not his personal partner. To use a native statement:

“Some of our goods we give in pari; some we keep back; later on, we gimwali it. They bring their areca-nut, their sago, they put it down. They want some article of ours, they say: ‘I want this stone blade.’ We give it, we put the betel-nut, the sago into our canoe. If they give us, however, a not sufficient quantity, we rate them. Then they bring more.”

This is a clear definition of the gimwali, with haggling and adjustment of equivalence in the act.

When the visiting party from Sinaketa arrive, the natives from the neighbouring districts, that is, from the small island of Dobu proper, from the other side of Dawson Straits, from Deyde’i, the village to the South, will assemble in the three Kula villages. These natives from other districts bring with them a certain amount of goods. But they must not trade directly with the visitors from Boyowa. They must exchange their goods with the local natives, and these again will trade them with the Sinaketans. Thus the hosts from the Kula community act as intermediaries in any trading relations between the Sinaketans and the inhabitants of more remote districts.

To sum up the sociology of these transactions, we may say that the visitor enters into a threefold relation with the Dobuan natives. First, there is his partner, with whom he exchanges general gifts on the basis of free give and take, a type of transaction, running side by side with the Kula proper. Then there is the local resident, not his personal Kula partner, with whom he carries on gimwali. Finally there is the stranger with whom an indirect exchange is carried on through the intermediation of the local men. With all this, it must not be imagined that the commercial aspect of the gathering is at all conspicuous. The concourse of the natives is great, mainly owing to their curiosity, to see the ceremonial reception of the uvalaku party. But if I say that every visitor from Boyowa, brings and carries away about half-a-dozen articles, I do not under-state the case. Some of these articles the Sinaketan has acquired in the industrial districts of Boyowa during his preliminary trading expedition (see Chapter VI, Division III). On these he scores a definite gain. A few samples of the prices paid in Boyowa and those received in Dobu will indicate the amount of this gain.

Kuboma to Sinaketa.

Dobu to Sinaketa.

1 tanepopo basket

= 12 coco-nuts

= 12 coco-nuts + sago + 1 belt

1 comb

= 4 coco-nuts

= 4 coco-nuts + 1 bunch of betel

1 armlet

= 8 coco-nuts

= 8 coco-nuts + 2 bundles of betel

1 lime pot

= 12 coco-nuts

= 12 coco-nuts + 2 pieces of sago

This table shows in its second column the prices paid by the Sinaketans to the industrial villages of Kuboma, a district in the Northern Trobriands. In the third column what they receive in Dobu is recorded. The table has been obtained from a Sinaketan informant, and it probably is far from accurate, and the transactions are sure to vary greatly in the gain which they afford. There is no doubt, however, that for each article, the Sinaketan would ask the price which he paid for them as well as some extra article.

Thus we see that there is in this transaction a definite gain obtained by the middlemen. The natives of Sinaketa act as intermediaries between the industrial centres of the Trobriands and Dobu, whereas their hosts play the same rôle between the Sinaketans and the men from the outlying districts.

Besides trading and obtaining of Kula valuables, the natives of Sinaketa visit their friends and their distant relatives, who, as we saw before, are to be found in this district owing to migrations. The visitors walk across the flat, fertile plain from one hamlet to the other, enjoying some of the marvellous and unknown sights of this district. They are shown the hot springs of Numanuma and of Deyde’i, which are in constant eruption. Every few minutes, the water boils up in one spring after another of each group, throwing up jets of spray a few metres high. The plain around these springs is barren, with nothing but here and there a stunted kind of eucalyptus tree. This is the only place in the whole of Eastern New Guinea where as far as I know, eucalyptus trees are to be found. This was at least the information of some intelligent natives, in whose company I visited the springs, and who had travelled all over the Eastern islands and the East end of the mainland.

The land-locked bays and lagoons, the Northern end of Dawson Strait, enclosed like a lake by mountains and volcanic cones, all this must also appear strange and beautiful to the Trobrianders. In the villages, they are entertained by their male friends, the language spoken by both parties being that of Dobu, which differs completely from Kiriwinian, but which the Sinaketans learn in early youth. It is remarkable that no one in Dobu speaks Kiriwinian.

As said above, no sexual relations of any description take place between the visitors and the women of Dobu. As one of the informants told me:

“We do not sleep with women of Dobu, for Dobu is the final mountain (Koyaviguna Dobu); it is a taboo of the mwasila magic.”

But when I enquired, whether the results of breaking this taboo would be baneful to their success in Kula only, the reply was that they were afraid of breaking it, and that it was ordained of old (tokunabogwo ayguri) that no man should interfere with the women of Dobu. As a matter of fact, the Sinaketans are altogether afraid of the Dobuans, and they would take good care not to offend them in any way.

After some three or four days’ sojourn in Dobu, the Sinaketan fleet starts on its return journey. There is no special ceremony of farewell. In the early morning, they receive their talo’i (farewell gifts) of food, betel-nut, objects of use and sometimes also a Kula valuable is enclosed amongst the the talo’i. Heavily laden as they are, they lighten their canoes by means of a magic called kaylupa, and sail away northwards once more.

1 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.) ↑