I

In this chapter the ring of the Kula has to be closed by a description of its remaining portions. It will also be found indispensable to speak about its offshoots, that is, the trade and the expeditions, regularly carried on from certain points of the ring to outlying places. We have come across such offshoots already, when we realised that the Western Trobriands, especially the village of Kavataria, and the settlements on the island of Kayleula make non-Kula trading expeditions to the islands of Fergusson and Goodenough. Such expeditions would naturally belong to a full picture of the Kula, with its various associations. This is even more the case, as this lateral trade is associated with the import and export of some of the Kula valuables in and out of the ring.

We have brought the description of our Southern expedition as far as Dawson Straits, and on the Eastern route, we reached Woodlark Island in the last chapter. We have to link up these two points. The saying, that a chain is not stronger than its weakest link does not, let us hope, apply to Ethnology. For indeed my knowledge of the remaining links of the Kula chain is far less complete than that contained in the previous chapters. Fortunately, what has been said there, remains true and valid, whatever might happen in the South-Eastern portion of the Kula. And again, there is no doubt that the fundamentals of the transaction are identical all over the ring, though some variations in detail probably occur. I had the opportunity of questioning informants from almost every place in the Kula, and the similarity of the main outlines is established beyond a doubt. Moreover, the information about some aspect of trade in the Southern Massim district contained in Professor Seligman’s book, entirely, though indirectly, corroborates my results. But it is necessary to state emphatically and explicitly that the data given in this chapter are not in the same category as the rest of the information contained in this book. The latter was obtained from natives among whom I lived, and the bulk of it has been controlled and verified by personal experiences and observations (compare Table I in the Introduction). The material referring to the South Eastern branch was obtained by cursory examination of natives from that district, whom I met abroad, not in their own country, whilst I have not been in any of the places between Woodlark Island and Dobu.

Starting at Woodlark Island, and keeping Map V before our eyes—we come at once on to an interesting ramification of the Kula. To the East of Woodlark, lies the coral group of the Loughlans, inhabited by natives speaking the same language as in Woodlark. They are in the ring, but it seems to be a cul-de-sac Kula, for as I was told, the valuables, which go there, return again to Woodlark. This is quite an unusual complication, a kind of eddy in the otherwise progressive current. I could not ascertain whether the difficulty is solved by the districts being sub-divided, a small ring being formed within it, and each class of articles moving on it in an opposite direction; or whether some other arrangement has been adopted. Again, one of my informants told me that some of the vaygu’a went directly from the Loughlans South to Misima, but I was unable to verify this statement and this whole part of the Kula must remain with a sketchy outline.

Whatever might be the routes on which the Kula articles travel South from Woodlark Island, there is no doubt whatever that they all, or almost all, converge in the important commercial centre of Tubetube. This small island, according to Professor Seligman, is not even self-supporting as far as food goes; nor are they a greatly industrial community. They are to a great extent engaged in trade, and probably gain part of their support from this activity. “Tubetube has become a trading community, whose inhabitants are recognised as traders and middlemen over a very considerable area, extending westwards … to Rogea and eastward to Murua.”1 Tubetube is known even in the Trobriands as one of the crucial points of the Kula, and it is well known that, whatever happens in the small island in the way of mortuary taboos and big feasts will affect the flow of valuables in Boyowa.

There is no doubt whatever that Tubetube had direct relations with Murua (to use the Tubetube pronunciation of the native name for Woodlark Island) to the North-East, and with Dobu to the North-West. I saw a canoe from the small island beached at Dobu, and in Woodlark I was told that men from Tubetube used to come there from time to time. Professor Seligman also describes in detail the manner and the stages of their sailings to Woodlark Island:

“Their trade route to Murua … was, as they made it, about 120–135 miles. They would usually go during the monsoon, and come back on the trade, as those winds served their itinerary best. Presuming that wind and weather served them throughout the passage, they slept the first night on an island called Ore, a couple of miles or so from Dawson Island. The next night they made Panamoti, the third night they slept at Tokunu (the Alcesters), and by the fourth night, they might reach Murua.”2 This description reminds us very much of the route on which we previously had followed the Sinaketans to Dobu—the same short stages with intermediate camping on sandbanks or islands, the same taking advantage of favourable following winds.

Plate LXIV  

Nagega Canoe.

This type of canoe is manufactured by the North Eastern Massim and it is used in the South Eastern branch of the Kula. (See Div. I and Ch. V, Div. IV.)

From Kitava Eastward as far as Tubetube, a different type of canoe was used, the nagega, mentioned already in Chapter V, Division IV. As we saw there, it was very much the same in principles of construction as the Trobriand canoe, but it was bigger, of a greater carrying capacity, and more seaworthy. It was at the same time slower, but had one great advantage over the swifter counterpart; having more waterboard, it made less leeway in its sailing, and could be sailed against the wind. It would thus allow the natives to cross distances and to face changes in the weather, either of which would compel the frailer and swifter canoe of Dobu and Kiriwina to turn back.

To the Northern shores of Normanby Island (Du’a’u) and to Dobu, the men of Tubetube would sail with the S.E. trade wind and return with the blow of the monsoon. According to Professor Seligman, such a trip to Dobu would take them also about four days, under the most favourable conditions.3

Thus, one fundamental fact can be regarded as definitely established; the main centre of the Kula in its South-Eastern branch, was the small island of Tubetube. And this island was in direct communication with two points to which we have followed the Kula in two directions, starting from the Trobriands; that is, with Dobu and with Woodlark Island.

On points of detail, some queries must be left unsolved. Were the visits returned by the Dobuans and Muruans? According to all probability, yes, but I possess no definite certainty on this point.

Another question is whether the natives of Tubetube were direct partners of Murua or Dobu. We have seen that natives of Kiriwina sail not infrequently to Iwa, Gawa, Kwayawata and even to Woodlark; yet they are not partners (karayta’u) of these natives, but partners once removed (murimuri). I have definite information that the natives of Dobu Island proper and of Du’a’u, who, as we remember are not partners of the Southern Boyowans, stood in direct relation of partnership to the Tubetube. I believe also that the natives of Woodlark made direct Kula exchange with those of Tubetube.

The fact, however, that there is a direct line of communication between Murua-Tubetube-Dobu does not preclude the possibility of other and more complex routes running parallel with the direct one. Indeed, I know that the island of Wari, (Teste Island) lying almost due South of Tubetube is also in the Kula. The big island of Misima (St. Aignan Island) about a hundred miles East of Tubetube forms also part of the ring. Thus a much wider circle runs from Woodlark Island, perhaps from the Loughlans through Misima, the neighbouring small island of Panayati, Wari, and further West, through the group of islands quite close to the East end of New Guinea, that is, the islands of Sariba, Roge’a, and Basilaki, and then northwards again towards Normanby Island. This duplicated circuit in the South-East has its North-Western counterpart in the double ramification which unites Kitava with Dobu. The short route runs direct from Kitava to Vakuta and from Vakuta to Dobu. Besides this, however, there are several longer ones. In one of them the stages are as follows: Kitava, Okayaulo, or Kitava, Wawela, thence Sinaketa, then Dobu direct; or via the Amphletts. Another and still wider ramification would run thus: Kitava, to Kiriwina, Kiriwina to Sinaketa, etc.; or, the widest, Kiriwina to western Boyowa, then Kayleula, thence Amphletts, and from there to Dobu. This last route was not only longest in distance, but owing to the notorious ‘hardness’ of both the natives of Kayleula and of the Amphletts, would take up much more time. A glance at Map V, and also at the more detailed map of the Trobriands (Map IV) will make all this clear.

A more detailed knowledge of the North-Western routes allowed us to see the complications and irregularities obtaining there; that the district of Western Boyowa carried on exclusively the inland Kula, and that merely in the person of a few headmen of a few villages; that Kayleula made Kula on a small scale with the communities in the Amphletts, and that all these, as well as the villages on the Eastern shore of Southern Boyowa, were what we described as semi-independent Kula communities. Such details and peculiarities no doubt also exist with regard to the South-Eastern ramifications of the Kula, but must be taken here for granted.

Following the various threads further on, I have no doubt that the islands lying near the East end of New Guinea—Roge’a, Sariba, Basilaki—are and were in olden days in the Kula ring, communicating in the East with Tubetube and Wari, while to the North they were in contact with the natives of Normanby Island. Whether the large village complex lying at East Cape was also in the Kula I cannot definitely say. In any case all the strands led to the Eastern shores of Dawson Straits, by way of the North-Eastern shores of Normanby Island. From here, from the district of Dobu, we have traced the further lines with complete exactness and detail.

Of the various details of these expeditions and technicalities of the Kula observed in them, I have not much material available. The rules of actual exchange, the ceremonial of conch blowing, the code of honour or morality or vanity, perhaps, compelling people to give equivalent articles for what they have received, all these are the same all along the ring. So is also the Kula magic, with variations in details.