Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/249

Rh 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 religious 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 reasons for the ceremony and the rude symbolism which underlies it have been carefully concealed under the seal of the oath of mysteries, and have evaded the traders who have witnessed the presentation 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 ceremony 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