VII

The tapwana (main parts) of the spells, though they take a much longer time in reciting, are simpler in construction. Many spells, moreover have no middle part at all. The first regular tapwana we find in our spells is that in the Kapitunena Duku. There, we have a series of key-words recited with a list of complimentary expressions. The key-words are verbs, spoken in the form:—

mata’i, cut, matake’i, cut at, meyova, etc. fly, etc.

These verbs are used in this spell with the prefix ma- or me-, which represents the tense of indefinite duration. This prefix, although, as far as I know, found in several Melanesian languages in full vigour, has in Kiriwina a distinctly archaic flavour, and is only used in certain locutions and in magic. Some of the verbs used in this spell are metaphorical in their meaning, describing the speed of the canoe in a figurative manner. The list of the complimentary words repeated with the key-words contains the enumeration of the different parts of the canoe. It is typical that the key-words are in their form archaic and in their meaning figurative while the complimentary terms are just ordinary words of everyday speech.

Another regular tapwana has been given in the Kadumiyala spell in Chapter IX, where the only key-word, napuwoye, has been translated: ‘I impart speed magically.’ The prefix na- is that of the definite tense. The formative pu- I was unable to translate, while the root woye means literally ‘to beat’ and in a somewhat more remote sense, ‘to impart magic.’ In the Kayikuna veva spell, the pair bwoytalo’i, bosuyare, meaning ‘paint red in a ritual manner,’ and ‘wreathe in a ritual manner,’ are given formal resemblance by the alliterative prefix bo-, which carries with it the meaning of ‘ritual.’

We see that the number of the tapwana is smaller, since only three spells out of seven have got it. In form, the tapwana are simpler than the u’ula, and an examination of a greater number of key-words would show that they also express directly or figuratively the magical action or its effect. Thus, here we had a verb denoting the imparting of magic, that is the direct expression of the action; then two words figuratively expressing it, and the series of verbal key-words enumerating the effects of the magic, such as flying, speed, etc. In other canoe spells, not given in this book, there could be found similar types of key-words such as: ‘the canoe flies’; ‘the buriwada fish is poised on a wave’; ‘the reef-heron wades’; ‘the reef-heron skirts the beach …’ all of them expressing the aim of the spell in accordance with the magical trend of thought.