100 MASKS AND LAKRETS. 



others from the same locality show, in one, an S-shaped flat piece of 

 wood inserted labretwise bettceen the month and theno.se; in two others 

 wooden boar-tusks, one on each side, with, between them, a Hat perfo- 

 rated wooden-carving ending anteriorly in an arrow-point, similarly placed 

 between the month and.nose, like lateral and mebian lad rets; in another 

 there is only the median piece; and iu still another there is a tusk only 

 on one side of the upper lip; (1. c, p. 23). Some of these masks were 

 intended to be held on by a mouth -bar between the teeth, placed on the 

 inside behind the mask-mouth as on the northwest coast of America. 

 Maskettes or carvings for the head-dress similar in many respects to the 

 masks are also characteristic features of the paraphernalia of the dance 

 in New Irelaud and New Britain ; (1. c, p. 32, 3.) 



Hubuer describes part of the Duk-Duk ceremony, as it is practiced 

 in New Britain, as follows: 



If auy of the chiefs family are ill, a Duk-Duk will probably be performed, since 

 only these rich people can afford such a luxury. This ceremony lasts about a week, 

 and the natives say that when a sick man sees a Duk-Duk he either gets well or soon 

 dies. This ceremony or religious performance takes place in a tabooed inclosure 

 where women and children may not go on paiu of death. Oue or more men are en- 

 tirely covered with leaves, excepting only their legs, which are bare and visible, and 

 their heads, upon which a Duk-Duk mask is placed, usually made of bast from tin- 

 wild cherry tree. 



Iu this array the wearer now runs through the island, begging from everybody : 

 even the whites are expected to give tobacco or shell-money. Women and children, 

 under the severe penalties which follow their seeing the Duk-Duk messenger, must 

 hide themselves during this time ; above all they must not say that this garb conceals 

 a fellow-countryman, but Turangeu, one of their deities. Probably the performer 

 will first take a canoe to another island and thence come back and make his first ap- 

 pearance coming out of the water. If the mask comes off the performer's head or 

 falls mi that the sharp point at the top sticks in the ground, he will be killed. 



I learned from one of the chiefs that the dress of the Duk-Duk is composed entirely 

 of single chaplets of leaves, the undermost, attached to two strings passing under 

 the shoulders, hangs directly over the hips. More and more of the chaplets are put 

 on until the man is covered to the neck, when the Duk-Duk hat is put on his head. 



During this solemnity those present indulge iu a sort of mock tight, screaming 

 and roaring; the young people run to one of the rider persons and perhaps after three 

 applications, each presents his back to the old mau, who strikes it with a stout club, 

 upon which the beaten person cries Boro (i. e., pig), and runs away. This agrees with 

 the custom that the "Tambu" people who are entitled to enter into the ceremony 

 may not eat pork. Upon their connection with the Duk-Duk ceremonial, I can say 

 nothing further, because the people who are not "Tambu" know nothiug, and those 

 who an- will say nothiug about it. If any one will become " Tambu " he must re- 

 main in a sitting posture in a house in the first Tambu inclosure for a month, silents, 

 and without seeing auy woman. However, he is well fed and naturally gets fat. 

 This dune, he must then perform a dance. He can then be seen of women and is 

 "Tambu." He must, however, abstain forever from pork and the flesh of sea animals, 

 otherwise, as is universally believed, he will die. (Schmeltz, 1 c, pp. 17-19, plate 

 „i. Bg. 1.) V 



Compare with this performance Swan's account of the Tsiahk dance 

 or ceremony for the sick among the Indians of Cape Flattery (1. c, 

 pp. 73-4) and with Schmeltz's figure of the Duk-Duk performauce 

 Swan's figure of a female performer in the Tsiahk dance. The fact that 



