THE DUK-DUK CEREMONIES. 237 



line of their methods can be ferreted out. That they exist and 

 exercise a tremendous power over the people is certain ; that they 

 are more powerful in communities devoid of religion is a fact; 

 and with almost equal certainty it may be said that these secret 

 societies are in some way intimately connected with the practice 

 of polyandry, which it is evident has only recently among the 

 Melanesian races yielded to the present system of polygamy. 



New Britain, at the most remote and the most savage verge of 

 Melanesia, shows to their best advantage the absence of the relig- 

 ious sentiment and the development of the secret society. Both are 

 well exhibited in the ceremony of the Duk-duk, which plays a 

 large part in the life of the community. It has not often been 

 seen by white men, for the reason that its performers or devotees 

 are fierce cannibals, and of those few who have seen it none have 

 been able to learn more than just what little they saw. The rea- 

 sons for the ceremony and the rude symbolism which underlies it 

 have been carefully concealed under the seal of the oath of mys- 

 teries, and have evaded the traders who have witnessed the pres- 

 entation of the ceremony on the village green. That this account 

 can go any deeper into the mystery than others is due solely to a 

 happy chance by which the writer was received into one of the 

 New Britain families, and was allowed to progress into the chief 

 mystery by initiation in due form. The public performance of 

 the Duk-duk will first need recounting. 



Upon a day not previously announced to the people the cere- 

 mony takes place. It is early in the morning, and the people have 

 not yet scattered to their customary occupations on the beach or 

 in the jungle that lies behind the village ; the chief stands at the 

 door of his house, smoking and watching the knots of the villagers ; 

 by his side stand some of the elders of the village discussing petty 

 politics ; the women chatter loudly at the spring, and the children 

 are noisy at their sport. Suddenly there comes the warning cry, 

 " Duk-duk ! " there is a sound of some one crashing through the 

 canebrakes, and the scene at once changes. The men hurry to 

 take their places at the doors of their dwellings, brandishing their 

 weapons of warfare ; the women shriek and rush for shelter ; and 

 the children scurry home in hot haste, stumbling and falling in 

 their hurry, but showing all the signs of terror. The noise in the 

 jungle grows louder and draws nearer, the .last hedge of rustling 

 canes is parted, and a strange figure appears running at the top of 

 his speed. 



It is the Duk-duk. Near the ground are seen the legs of a man 

 black as tropical skies and a hereditary inclination could make 

 them, shining with cocoanut oil, and in rapid motion, as of a man 

 who runs and dances with wild pirouettings as he goes. With 

 the flashing shins all semblance of manhood ceases ; what the eye 



