User:Hemiauchenia/sandboxCargoCult

"Vailala Madness"
In 1923 reports of unusual behaviour were invesigated by F. E. Williams in the vicinity of Vailala in the Gulf of Papua, which had been dubbed "Vailala Madness" by local colonial officials. According to Williams account, a prophecy had emerged that ancestral spirits carrying cargo would return onboard ghost steam ships, with followers of the movement imitating Australian-style tea parties at flower-decorated tables, engaging in ecstatic dance, drilling and marching, destroying artifacts in a ritual manner, and rejecting the traditional initiation ceremony undergone by men.