IX

I have given so far a short linguistic survey of the canoe spells, dealing first with their initial parts, u’ula, then with their main parts, tapwana, and lastly saying a few words about the dogina. In a still more summary manner, I shall give a short survey of the mwasila (Kula magic) spells, quoted or mentioned in this book, beginning with the u’ula.

In the Yawarapu spell (Chapter VII) we have the beginning:—

Bu’a, bu’a, bovinaygau, vinaygu;
bu’a, bu’a, bomwanaygu, mwanaygu …

Here the word bu’a (areca-nut) is repeated and used as a prefix bo-, with the antithetic roots -vinay- (female), and -mwanay- (male) and with the suffix -gu (first possessive pronoun).

The Kaymwaloyo (Chapter VII) begins:—

Gala bu’a, gala doga, gala mwayye …

This is spoken in a solemn manner, and then follows the play on the root mwase, described above in the free translation of this spell.

Another rhythmic beginning, spoken with regular, strongly marked accent is to be found in the Kaykakaya spell (Chapter XIII):

Kaýtutúna íyanâ, márabwága iyanâ …

Symmetrical arrangements of words, with alliterative prefixing of a particle and with antithetic uses of word couples are to be found in several other spells.

The Talo formula (Chapter XIII):

Talo, talo’udawada, udawada
Talo, talomwaylili, mwaylili …

The Ta’uya spell (Chapter XIII):

Mwanita, monimwanita;
Deriwa, baderideriwa;
Derima, baderiderima …

The Ka’ubana’i spell (Chapter XIII):

Mose’una Nikiniki,
Moga’ina Nikiniki …

The Kwoygapani spell (Chapter XIV):

Kwega, kweganubwa’i, nubwa’i;
Kwega, kweganuwa’i, nuwa’i;
Kwega, kweganuma’i, numa’i …

I have written them down here without full comment, to show their formal phonetic characteristics, which are indeed in all essentials quite similar to the samples previously quoted and analysed.