Note 2 — Kaykakaya Spell

At the beginning of this spell, we find enumerated a series of fish names. These fishes all have red markings on their bodies, and they are tabooed to the people, who recite the mwasila magic and do the Kula. If eaten, they would give a man an ugly appearance. The above quoted saying of one of my informants: “we eat bad fish, we are ugly,” refers to these fishes amongst others. In this formula, the invocation is partly an appeal for assistance, and partly a sort of exorcism, which is meant to undo the evil effects of breaking the taboo of eating these fish. As this formula is associated with the ritual washing, the whole proceeding possesses a sort of magical consistency, which obtains within an exceedingly obscure and confused concatenation of ideas: the redness of the fish, the red painting on the human bodies for beauty, the invocation of the fishing magic, the taboo on this fish. These ideas hang together somehow, but it would be unwise and incorrect to attempt to put them into any logical order or sequence.2 The sentence about ‘visiting,’ in this spell could not be made clear by any of my native informants. I venture to suggest that the fish are invited to assist the adventurer on his Kula visit, and to help him with their beauty.