Bisila Spell. “Bora’i, Bora’i (a mythical name). Bora’i flies, it will fly; Bora’i Bora’i, Bora’i stands up, it will stand up. In company with Bora’i—*sidididi*. Break through your passage in Kadimwatu, pierce through thy Promontory of Salamwa. Go and attach your pandanus streamer in Salamwa, go and ascend the slope of Loma.” “Lift up the body of my canoe; its body is like floating gossamer, its body is like dry banana leaf, its body is like fluff.”
There is a definite association in the minds of the natives between the pandanus streamers, with which they usually decorate mast, rigging and sail, and the speed of the canoe. The decorative effect of the floating strips of pale, glittering yellow is indeed wonderful, when the speed of the canoe makes them flutter in the wind. Like small banners of some stiff, golden fabric they envelope the sail and rigging with light, colour and movement.
The pandanus streamers, and especially their trembling, are a definite characteristic of Trobriand culture (see Plate XXIX). In some of their dances, the natives use long, bleached ribbons of pandanus, which the men hold in both hands, and set a-flutter while they dance. To do this well is one of the main achievements of a brilliant artist. On many festive occasions the bisila (pandanus streamers) are tied to houses on poles for decoration. They are thrust into armlets and belts as personal ornaments. The vaygu’a (valuables) when prepared for the Kula, are decorated with strips of bisila. In the Kula a chief will send to some distant partner a bisila streamer over which a special spell has been recited, and this will make the partner eager to bestow valuables on the sender. As we saw, a broad bisila streamer is attached to the canoe of a toli’uvalaku as his badge of honour. The flying witches (mulukwausi) are supposed to use pandanus streamers in order to acquire speed and levitation in their nightly flights through the air.
After the magical pandanus strips have been tied to the rigging, beside the non-magical, purely ornamental ones, the toliwaga sits at the veva rope, the sheet by which the sail is extended to the wind, and moving it to and fro he recites a spell.
Kayikuna Veva Spell. Two verbs signifying magical influence are repeated with the prefix *bo-*—which implies the conception of ‘ritual’ or ‘sacred’ or ‘being tabooed.’1 Then the *toliwaga* says: “I shall treat my canoe magically in its middle part, I shall treat it in its body. I shall take my *butia* (flower wreath), of the sweet-scented flowers. I shall put it on the head of my canoe.” Then a lengthy middle strophe is recited, in which all the parts of a canoe are named with two verbs one after the other. The verbs are: “To wreathe the canoe in a ritual manner,” and “to paint it red in a ritual manner.” The prefix *bo-*, added to the verbs, has been here translated, “in a ritual manner.”1 The spell ends by a conclusion similar to that of many other canoe formulæ, “My canoe, thou art like a whirlwind, like a vanishing shadow! Disappear in the distance, become like mist, avaunt!”
These are the three usual rites for the sake of speed at the beginning of the journey. If the canoe remains slow, however, an auxiliary rite is performed; a piece of dried banana leaf is put between the gunwale and one of the inner frame sticks of the canoe, and a spell is recited over it. After that, they beat both ends of the canoe with this banana leaf. If the canoe is still heavy, and lags behind the others, a piece of kuleya (cooked and stale yam) is put on a mat, and the toliwaga medicates it with a spell which transfers the heaviness to the yam. The spell here recited is the same one which we met when the heavy log was being pulled into the village. The log was then beaten with a bunch of grass, accompanied by the recital of the spell, and then this bunch was