ABSTRACT
WE have been following the various routes and ramifications of the Kula, entering minutely and meticulously into its niles and customs, its beliefs and practices, and the mythological tradition spun round it, till, arriving at the end of our inform· ation, we have made its two ends meet. We shall now put aside the magnifying glass of detailed examination and look from a distance at the subject of our inquiry, take in the whole institution witli one glance, let it assume a definite shape hefore us. This shape will perhaps strike ns as being some· thing unusual, something not met before in ethnological studies. It wi11 be well to make an attempt at finding its place among the other subjects of systematic ethnology, at gauging its significance, at assessing how much we have learned by becoming acquainted with it.
