This was an annual festival in Rabaul, on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. It was never fully explained to me. Perhaps no one I asked spoke good enough English to clearly articulate it, but magic and sorcery in New Guinea are associated with secret men’s societies; these are not necessarily things to be readily shared with outsiders. I only understood that each of three different villages was in a different boat, competing over who could make a stronger display of their magic powers. What I could clearly see was that this was a tradition that the local people were trying hard to hang onto. Most of the participants were men at least 30 years in age, who took the proceedings quite seriously. Many of the onlookers were teenagers in fake Adidas and Nike sneakers who made light of the event. Perhaps some of them will carry on this tradition when they are older and some of them will not.