clearer and simpler, and they present connected sequences of words. They are an invocation to ancestral spirits, asking them to join the magician at the canoe, which is called here Kaykudayuri, ‘the craft of the Kudayuri,’ and to place the pandanus streamers on the top of Teulo. This, in an exaggerated and figurative speech, expresses an invitation to the spirits to follow the man on his trip. It must be noted that, according to the present belief at least, the spirits are not conceived as agents or forces which carry the canoe at the behest of the magician, but as passive companions only. Sentence 6 contains a scornful address to his companions; the magician in prospect sees himself sailing ahead towards the mountains; as he turns round, the Kitava men, that is his companions, are far behind on the beach of To’uru, and the whole sea-arm of Pilolu still lies before them.
In 7, the same trend of ideas is followed; the custom of kindling the fire by the first canoe is alluded to, and the magician sees himself carrying out this privilege. It is to be noted that he speaks always of his canoe under the name of Kudayuri, that is of the mythical flying canoe of ancient times. In 8, the canoe is addressed as a flying witch, who is asked to bind her skirt together and to fly. In 9, the magician verbally retraces an incident from the original myth of Kudayuri. He takes the adze handle, gets hold of the canoe, and strikes it, whereupon the canoe flies.
Thus the u’ula begins with archaic, condensed compounds each carrying a self-contained cycle of magical meaning. Then follows a list of forbears; then more explicit and, at the same time more dramatic sentences; an invocation to ancestral spirits, the anticipated victory in speed, the reconstructed mythical incident.
IV
Let us pass now to the tapwana. This is always the longest part of a spell, since we have a whole list of words which have to be repeated with several key expressions, of which in the present case there are three. Moreover, the magician can ad libitum repeat the same words over and over again with a key word. He will not go in any fixed order over all the words of the list, but is allowed, in this part of the formula, to return and repeat with one key-word the various items of the list.
It will be best to say here a few words about the manner in which the magical formulæ are actually recited. The opening words are always intoned with a strong, melodious cadence which is not permanently fixed, but varies with the magician. The first words are repeated some several times. Thus here, kala bosisi’ula would be reiterated three or four times, and so would be the following two words (kala bomwalela). The words of No. 2 are recited slowly and ponderously but not repeated. The list of ancestors is run over quickly and perfunctorily. The rest of the u’ula, its dramatic part so