Another type of such a gift is called kaributu, and consists of a valuable which, as a rule, is not one of those which are regularly kulaed. Thus, a small polished axe blade, or a valuable belt is given with the words: “I kaributu your necklace (or armshells); I shall take it and carry it off.” This gift again may only be accepted if there is an intention to satisfy the giver with the desired vaygu’a. A very famous and great valuable will often be solicited by gift of pokala and of kaributu, one following the other. If, after one or two of such solicitory gifts, the big vaygu’a is finally given, the satisfied receiver will often give some more food to his partner, which gift is called kwaypolu.
The food gifts would be returned on a similar occasion if it arises. But there would be no strict equivalence in the matter of food. The kaributu gift of a valuable, however, would always have to be returned later on, in an equivalent form. It may be added that the pokala offerings of food would be most often given from a district, where food is more abundant than in the district to which it is carried. Thus, the Sinaketans would bring pokala to the Amphletts, but they would seldom or never pokala the Dobuans, who are very rich in food. Again, within the Trobriands, a pokala would be offered from the Northern agricultural district of Kiriwina to men of Sinaketa, but not inversely.
Another peculiar type of gift connected with the Kula is called korotomna. After a Sinaketan has given a necklace to a man of Kiriwina, and this latter receives a minor valuable from his partner further East, this minor valuable will be given to the Sinaketan as the korotomna of his necklace. This gift usually consists of a lime spatula of whalebone ornamented with spondylus discs, and it has to be repaid.
It must be noted that all these expressions are given in the language of the Trobriands, and they refer to the gifts exchanged between the Northern and Southern Trobriands on the one hand, and these latter and the Amphletts on the other. In an overseas expedition from Sinaketa to Dobu, the solicitary gifts would be rather given wholesale, as the visitors’ gifts of pari, and the subtle distinctions in name and in technicality would not be observed. That this must be so becomes clear, if we realise that, whereas, between the Northern and Southern Trobriands the news about an exceptionally good valuable spreads easily and quickly, this is not the case between Dobu and Boyowa. Going over to Dobu, therefore, a man has to make up his mind, whether he will give any solicitory presents to his partner, what and how much he will give him, without knowing whether he has any specially fine valuables to expect from him or not. If, however, there was any exceptionally valuable gift in the visitors’ pari, it will have to be returned later on by the Dobuans.
Another important type of gift essential to the Kula is that of the intermediary gifts, called basi. Let us imagine that a Sinaketan man has given a very fine pair of armshells to his Dobuan partner at their last meeting in Sinaketa. Now, arriving in Dobu, he finds that his partner has not got any necklace equivalent in value to the armshells given. He none the less will expect his partner to give him meanwhile a necklace, even though it be of inferior value. Such a gift is a basi, that is, not a return of the highly valuable vaga, but a gift given to fill in the gap. This basi will have to be repaid by a small equivalent pair of armshells at a later date. And the Dobuan