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Free Translation.
1 The Tolabwaga canoe would be launched first; by this the face of the sea is cleared.
2 Afterwards, all the chiefs’, the commoners’ canoes are launched.
3 If we would launch our canoes first, the spirits (of ancestors) would be angry with us; we would go to Dobu and we would receive no pigs, no necklaces.
4 It is likewise with the lashing of the canoe: first, the Tolabwaga would bind the lashing creeper and afterwards ourselves.
5 On our journey to Dobu, the Tolabwaga would not sail ahead, for their priority ends on the beach of Sinaketa.
6 On the sea it is according to our wish, and if one man’s canoe runs fast, he would be first.
7 They (the Tolabwaga) do not wield the command of the canoe fleet.
8 In Dobu, the chiefs would be first; the chiefs would arrive there at the head of the fleet.
9 But the supremacy of the Tolabwaga ends here already, in the village.
10 The Kula magic, the magic of the canoe, belonging to the Tolabwaga clan has passed already into the hands of their womenfolk.
11 (These would say speaking to their male children): — “We shall give you the magic, the magical inheritance, you rule henceforward.”
12 When the spirits become angry, they would tell us:— “Why are the Tolabwaga not first and you minor chiefs are ahead? Are not the Tolabwaga cleaners of the sea?”