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women never inherit magic from their fathers, except when 

 there is no male issue in the family. It should be remarked 

 that brothers, especially those living in one and the same 

 house and forming one household, practise their magic in 

 common. Thus it would be perhaps more correct to speak of 

 household magic than of individual magic. On the other 

 hand, as each of the brothers keeps a nominal overright to one 

 of the formulas, allowing the other or others to use them 

 freely, the term "individual" may be used (cf., the concrete 

 example given below). 



This is the sociological aspect of the individual magic. 

 Turning now to its technical side, it possesses three essential 

 elements — the condition of the performer, obtained by the 

 observation of certain permanent taboos ; the use in it of 

 certain material objects, which, in Mailu, are always leaves 

 or herbs (except in one case, to my knowledge, noted below) ; 

 a magical spell, pronounced by the individual during the per- 

 formance of the magic. All three elements are absolutely and 

 equally essential for the satisfactory result of the magic. The 

 magical substance (leaves) must be properly handled and the 

 spell recited during this performance, and in tliis consists the 

 magical act. Again, if the man dared to break his taboo 

 (Tora), not only would his magic be ineffective, but serious 

 illness would be his punishment. A man who ate tabooed 

 food would suffer from an outbreak of sores all over his body, 

 which was the universal form of punitive illness, except in the 

 case of the dugong charm to be shortly mentioned, when 

 swelling of the belly would be the penalty befalling the wrong- 

 doer. The taboos observed by the various men are not a 

 secret, and I was able to learn those of a number of men in 

 the village. But the magical formulas and the names of the 

 ingredients are kept absolutely secret, and I owe it to the 

 special kindness and confidence of one of my native friends 

 that I obtained the esoteric information concerning two magi- 

 cal procedures. These I shall describe, as well as another case, 

 in which, though I did not actually obtain the intimate 

 details, I took part in the negotiations going between my cook 

 Igua and Pikana with reference to a powerful dugong fishing 

 charm. In this way I obtained an insight into the way in 

 which the natives regard the whole affair from the economic 

 point of view. 



To begin with the last-mentioned case, Pikana, the owner 

 (or, more correctly, Guhina, master) of the only dugong net 

 in the village, is also the possessor of a dugong magic which 

 he has inherited from his mother. His maternal grandfather 

 had no male progeny, so he gave it to his daughter, the mother 

 of Pikana, who afterwards transmitted it to her sons, Pikana 



