Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/421

Rh The truant is called back from the several points of the compass and from the two parts of the jungle (Ulawola and Tepila), one in the North and the other in the South, which, surrounded by marshes {dumia), are perhaps the most inaccessible spots in the main island of the Trobriands, and are regarded as the home of the bush pig. The last part, as the reader has probably noticed, is built on the same pattern as the formula of the love magic. The compound words "us-thy-mother," "us-thy-father" are constructed with the inclusive dual possessive ma. Thus by the magical virtue of this charm the man and woman should not only be as husband and wife should be to one another in the conjugal house, but as the father and mother in the parental home also.

This formula is said to be very powerful, and to have restored married happiness to scores of broken households.

With the pious hope that this is true we may conclude the present chapter.

Rh