92 KAIVA KUKU AND SEMESE DANCES. 
The Kaiva Kuku ceremony involves the above but 
the Kaiva Kuku masks are much smaller and imitate 
birds, pigs, crocodiles, fish, etc., and even human beings. 
Although this information has been gleaned from most 
reliable sources, the original Kaiva Kuku ceremonies are 
nevertheless rapt in mystery. Until quite recently it would 
have been impossible, except at very great risk, to even 
obtain a photograph of the masks, much less the dances 
themselves. The ceremonies were always held most 
secretly, and nothing of what transpired was allowed to leak 
out; that fearful ordeals were enacted and the cruellest 
of practices indulged in seems to be certain, but whether 
the sufferers were always the victims of tabu or revenge 
does not transpire. From what I gathered in conversa- 
tion with Mr. G. 8. MacDonell (late of Orokolo} I should 
almost be inclined to give to the Kaiva Kuku “inner ”’ 
ceremonies a phallic significance of indirect importance ; 
it seems to me as if certain definite ceremonials had been 
practised as a matter of course, and from what we know 
of the Melanesians generally such interpretation is not 
to be excluded without further investigation. Only with 
very much persuasion can the Papuans of this district 
be induced to throw any light upon this subject, the secrets 
of which they still guard with characteristic cuteness. * 
* Rey. T. Holmes. Initiation ceremonies of the Natives of the Papuan 
Gulf. Jour. Anth. Inst., Vol. 32, 1902. 
