some time in March or April, ogibukuvi (i.e., in the season of the new yams) the magician gives the order for preparations. The community give him a gift called sousula , one or two bringing a vaygu’a , the rest supplying gugu’a (ordinary chattels), and some food. Then they prepare the canoes, and get ready the binabina stones, with which the spondylus shell will be knocked off the reef.
Next day, in the morning, the magician performs a rite called ‘kaykwa’una la’i,’ ‘the attracting of the reef,’ for, as in the case of several other marine beings, the main seat of the kaloma is far away. Its dwelling place is the reef Ketabu, somewhere between Sanaroa and Dobu. In order to make it move and come towards Nanoula, it is necessary to recite the above-named spell. This is done by the magician as he walks up and down on the Sinaketa beach and casts his words into the open, over the sea, towards the distant seat of the kaloma. The kaloma then ‘stand up’ (itolise) that is start from their original coral outcrop (vatu) and come into the Lagoon of Sinaketa. This spell, I obtained from To’udavada, the present chief of Kasi’etana, and descendant of the original giver of this shell, the woman of the myth. It begins with a long list of ancestral names; then follows a boastful picture of how the whole fleet admires the magical success of the magician’s spell. The key-word in the main part is the word ‘itolo’: ‘it stands up,’ i.e., ‘it starts,’ and with this, there are enumerated all the various classes of the kaloma shell, differentiated according to size, colour and quality. It ends up with another boast; “My canoe is overloaded with shell so that it sinks,” which is repeated with varying phraseology.
