Casting now a glance at the Kula ring we see that one class of Kula article, the mwali or armshells, are produced within the ring at two points, that is, in Woodlark Island and in Western Boyowa. The other article, that is the soulava or bagi (necklaces) are poured into the ring at its southernmost point. One of these sources (Rossel Island) is still active, the other (Port Moresby) most probably furnished a good supply in olden days, but is now disconnected with the Kula ring. The necklaces produced in Sinaketa are not the real Kula article, and though they are sometimes exchanged they sooner or later disappear from the ring according to a sort of Gresham’s Law, which operates here on an article which is not money, and therefore acts in the opposite sense! The third type of valuable which sometimes flows in the Kula stream but is not really of it, the large green stone axe blades, finely polished all over, are, as we know, or more correctly were, quarried in Woodlark Island, and polished in the district of Kiriwina in the Trobriands. Another polishing centre is, or was, I believe, the island of Misima.
We see that the two sources of the mwali and soulava are at the Northern and Southern ends of the ring; the armshells being manufactured in the extreme North, the necklaces entering at the Southern end. It is noteworthy that on the Eastern portion of the ring, on the section Woodlark-Boyowa-Dobu-Tubetube, the two articles travel in the natural direction, that is, each is exported from the districts of its origin towards one, where it is not made or procured. On the other branch, Woodlark-Yeguma-Tubetube, the current of the Kula is inverse to a natural, commercial movement of the articles, for here, the Tubetube people import armshells into Murua, thus bringing coals to Newcastle, while the Muruans bring necklaces to Tubetube and Wari, that is, to the points at which the necklaces flow into the ring from the outside. These considerations are important for anyone who would like to reflect on the origins, or history of the Kula, since the natural movement of valuables was no doubt the original one, and the Western half of the Kula from this point of view appears to be the older.
But here we have come to an end of all the descriptive data referring to the Kula, and some general remarks which I have to make upon it, will be reserved for the next and last chapter.