23 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sees is not a man but an animated extinguisher, a gigantic copy in 

 reeds and grass of the tin cones with which a generation that had 

 not yet struck oil was wont to put out its tallow dips. Ten feet 

 high, this extinguisher prances through the village, rushing furi- 

 ously at every house as though intent upon extinguishing all who 

 might be within, stopping short at sight of the armed householder 

 only to whirl high in air and dart away to the next house, followed 

 by the armed man from every house he has visited. It is a mad 

 dance, this speechless prancing of a rushy cone followed by a con- 

 stantly lengthening queue of silent warriors grimly brandishing 

 clubs and poising spears. From house to house it goes until every 

 house has been visited. If the Duk-duk chance upon a man aAvay 

 from the shelter of his roof -tree, meet him crossing the village 

 green, or lurking in one of the narrow alleys, he charges down 

 upon him, and destruction seems imminent. The man thus met 

 lifts his arms with certain symbolic movements of the hands and 

 fingers ; his sign is recognized, the cone dances back, the threat- 

 ening clubs are lowered, and the stroller falls in at the end of the 

 procession. If man, woman, or child thus met out of doors failed 

 to give the proper sign the clubs of the warriors would fall and the 

 extinguisher would dance upon the prostrate form, dyeing his feet 

 and ankles and staining the long grasses of his disguise with the 

 blood of the profaner of the mysteries. Sometimes it happens 

 that some man not deemed worthy of initiation is caught unawares 

 before he can gain a place of refuge, and in every such case the 

 full penalty of death by clubbing is exacted. 



Sometimes a man met out of cover gives the proper sign, but 

 the Duk-duk still dances before him, and the warriors still 

 threaten but do not strike. Two others then leave the line and 

 stand by the side of the man thus menaced, always one of the boys 

 just growing into manhood ; together they all three give the sign, 

 the disguised fugleman and his tail dance away in search of other 

 victims, and the two sponsors lead the lad away to an inclosure 

 near the woods on the outskirts of the village. 



The dance is done with a final nourish before the house of the 

 chief, who would be chief no longer if he incurred the enmity of 

 the Duk-duk ; the stragglers have given the proper sign and have 

 joined the dancing queue, or been led away by their sponsors, or 

 else they have not hailed the mysterious visitor in the due and 

 ancient form, and lie bloody where they stood, mere dead things. 

 There is a flourish before the chief's house, and then the dancers, 

 still strangely silent, follow their leader by the most direct route 

 to the inclosure of high palisades where await them all such as 

 they have met who have required sponsors ; there is always one 

 such, frequently more ; for it is generally for the purpose of 

 initiating these candidatas into the mysteries that the Duk-duk 



