“Some sixty canoes of the Dobuans are coming,” > “the fleet is anchored off Tewara,” > “each canoe is heavily laden with food and gifts,” > “Kauyaporu sails in his canoe, he is toli’uvalaku, and has a big pandanus streamer attached to the prow.” A string of other names followed which had very little meaning for me, since I was not acquainted with the Dobuan natives. From another part of the world, from the Trobriands, the goal of the whole expedition, news reached us again: > “To’uluwa, the chief of Kiriwina has gone to Kitava—he will soon come back, bringing plenty of mwali.” > “The Sinaketans are going there to fetch some of the mwali.” > “The Vakutans have been in Kitava and brought back great numbers of mwali.” It was astonishing to hear all this news, arriving at a small island, apparently completely isolated with its tiny population, within these savage and little navigated seas; news only a few days old, yet reporting events which had occurred at a travelling distance of
It was interesting to follow up the way it had come. The earlier news about the Dobuans had been brought by the canoes, which had fetched the sago to Gumasila from the main island. A few days later, a canoe from one of the main island villages had arrived here, and on its way had passed the Dobuans in Tewara. The news from the Trobriands in the North had been brought by the Kuyawa canoe which had arrived