236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



their blossoms during the same day or week or even month of 

 the year. 



[The above article has been prepared from notes taken by the 

 writer while occupying the chair of botany in the Iowa Agricult- 

 ural College.] 



THE DUK-DUK CEREMONIES. 



By WILLIAM CHURCHILL. 



EELIGION is a vanishing quantity in the western Pacific, and 

 the farther west one goes by so much the more rapidly does 

 this sentiment vanish ; dogmatic theology and its practical pro- 

 fession are alike absent from the thought and practice of the dark 

 Melanesian. Simplicity marks all the desires of this island sav- 

 agery, and this same simplicity marks all the spiritual side of life \ 

 instead of wondering puzzlement over the hazy ideas of a great 

 first cause, or a hereafter which may in some sort be molded by 

 the conduct of life in the present, the remote islander limits his 

 religion and the spiritual side of him to an ill-defined, scarcely 

 acknowledged fear of the unknown. Worship he has none ; even 

 the idea of propitiation of the malign power has not yet occurred 

 to him ; and the most that he can conceive of is sedulously to re- 

 frain from naming this terrible unknown. 



Another circumstance deserves note because of its interesting 

 coincidence with this absence of faith. What internal connection 

 there may be between the two, if indeed there be any, is most ob- 

 scure, for the reason that these people are as yet little known, and 

 are very chary of communicating any information concerning 

 these two features of their life. It is noticed by the careful ob- 

 server that just in proportion as the forms and formulas of relig- 

 ion disappear from the life of the savage communities he visits, 

 so there is a marked increase in the prevalence and power of the 

 secret societies which seem to take the place of priestcraft and 

 kingcraft. 



Melanesia presents a very long list of these associations of 

 men who are inducted into some secret or other, who are threat- 

 ened with the most severe penalties if they divulge any part of these 

 mysteries to the profane, and who are provided with signals for the 

 recognition of other possessors of the same mysteries ; and in more 

 than one instance it has been observed that these signals have 

 been recognized and regarded by people on far-distant islands, 

 speaking a dissimilar tongue, and so remote as at once to preclude 

 any chance of frequent communication. The very existence of 

 these mystic orders is as far as possible kept secret, and it is only 

 by long and patient study of the people that even the merest out- 



