[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

100 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

possible that this has taken the place of former human
sacrifices. The “Suque” is the community of all
the men who have sacrificed tusked pigs. It is an
international society, divided into numerous groups
composed of the men of different islands, districts,
villages or clans. It is the only means to assure
oneself of bliss hereafter, and to obtain power and
wealth on earth, and whoever fails to join the “ Suque ”
is an outcast, a man of no importance, without friends
and without protectors, whether living men or spirits,
and therefore exposed to every ill-treatment and
utter contempt. This explains the all-important
position of the “Suque” in the life of the natives,
being the expression both of religion and of ambition.

Frequently a young boy will join the “Suque,”
an uncle on the mother’s side donating pigs to be
sacrificed in his name after he has touched them with
his hand. The boy is then free of the gamal, the
“ Suque ” club-house. Later he works his way up in
the society by attending numberless feasts and cere-
monies, by having endless discussions on tusked pigs,
by borrowing, buying and lending pigs, by plotting
and sacrificing.

The number of castes varies on different islands :
in Ambrym there are fourteen, in Venua Lava
twenty, in Aoba ten. On some islands, Santo, for
example, the caste-system is connected with a severe
separation of the fires ; each caste cooks over its own
fire, and loses its degree on eating food cooked on
the fire of a lower caste. In these districts the floor
of the gamal is frequently marked by bamboo rods