Crocodile Scars

Crocodile Scars
Along the Sepik River tribe of Papua New Guinea a group of initiates enter a hut known as the spirit where they will live for the next 6 weeks. Theyrange in age from 11 year old to more than 30 so the age is no set age for the right of getting the crocodile scars. The meaning of the crocodile is ancestral to thisculture and no male will receive the privileges of being a man until they have performed this ritual. The initiates will be scared with the mark of the crocodile. If theinitiates can suffer through the pain of being cut they will be strong enough to carry the burns of adulthood. Although the risk is to high and they could die trying to gettheir crocodile scars. The initiate’s uncles hold them down while the tribal cutters start cutting the initiate’s body. The men get to chew on a leaf that has the effectsof a strong drink but they get no anesthetics to hold the pain. The cutters work diligently going slash after slash on the initiate skin. When the cutters are done theinitiate’s body is a wrack with pain after the long and painful day. After the cutting the initiates are taken back to the ceremonial hut to rest. Their wounds are treatedbut even the touch of a feather could make the strongest man suffer. The cutting maybe finished but the danger isn’t over the initiates are still in danger of gettingtheir wounds infected. Although the tribe encourage a controlled infection. For weeks the men go through the same routine they wash their open wounds with fresh cold waterso the wounds will pop out to create the effect that the crocodile scars have. Then the initiates are presented to the tribe as true men and the new liders of the tribe.