ABSTRACT
The Tikopia ritual cycle known as the Work of the Gods was the most spectacular of my discoveries in this isolated community in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Although a few of the rites had been briefly mentioned by the Rev. W. J. Durrad, and by Dr W. H. R. Rivers, who used Durrad’s valuable material, there was no hint in these accounts that the rites were anything but isolated performances. It was only indeed some months after my arrival in Tikopia that I realized the complexity and highly organized character of the ritual.
