Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/403

 have the words accurately or he may have broken a conditional taboo; or a counter-magic may frustrate his almost successful attempts. As in all supernatural control of chance, magical infallibility is absolute only under absolutely perfect conditions; that is to say, it is never attained in practice, though it may be claimed in theory.

In following the practice of love magic through its successive stages, we must have in mind the setting of a Trobriand love story, in ordinary village life and among the customary forms of communication between the sexes. Although girls are said to practise this magic, it is more usual for the man to take the initiative. The story begins in the ordinary way: a boy is fascinated by a girl. If there be no response and he does not win her favours im- mediately, he resorts to the most potent way of courting her, that is by magic.

As in ordinary beauty magic, he must first wash or bathe in the sea. Thus he makes himself handsome and attractive 3 in the same rite he also charms a responsive affection into the loved one's heart. Let us suppose our hero to live near the sea. On his way to the shore, he gathers in the bush some of the soft spongy leaves of the wageva, silasila, or ponatile shrubs, and also some leaves from a tree with a specially smooth and clean bark — preferably from the reyava and gatumwalila. He puts the whole bundle into some large leaf and chants the