Fiji Fest

Amid a mild epidemic of measles and much general hilarity, the Duke and Duchess of York landed at Suva, Fiji Islands, last week from the cruiser Renown, on their way to Australia (TIME, Jan. 17 et seq.). The natives, their faces painted, their bodies caparisoned in grassy garments, received the King-Emperor's son with a tama, a prolonged, mournful and most honorable sound, a sound that begins as a grant, crescendoes to a bark, and ends with an exclamation resembling "WHOA!"

Came Ratu Popi Seniloli, Great Chief of Fiji, who yet takes orders from that greater chief, Sir Eyre Hutson, Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. Attired in a garment of woven bark (tapa), and resplendent in a necklace of polished whale's teeth,* Great Chief Ratu Popi presented the Duke with the tooth of a sperm whale.

Soon the Chief was hopping and strutting gleefully with a silver-headed cane from Bond Street, presented by the Duke and Duchess. Grateful, he prepared for them a bowl of the sacred nectar kava, "by drinking which the Chief is brought near and like unto his people." When this potent beverage had been mixed, stirred, and the more solid ingredients pounded in a great bowl, the Chief personally strained it through a filter of woven bark, saying: "This make kava very nice. This take out all the grit." The Duke, no weakling, downed a huge swallow of kava. Thereafter, although flushed for a moment, he gave no sign or indication of its taste. . . .

As the Renown put to sea, the Fijians squatted in ceremonial postures, kept up a steady hand-clapping.

In London fiery Scotch Laborite David Kirkwood rose up in the House of Commons, shouted: "The Yorks are on a joyride that costs the Exchequer probably a thousand pounds an hour ($4,860). . . . Why aren't they going to Australia on an ordinary steamer? . . . They are good riddance at the uttermost ends of the earth, and it wouldn't matter an iota if they never returned!"

"Order! Order!" cried Conservatives. Said the Speaker, "The Right Honorable Member must desist from language discourteous to the Royal Family."

In Glasgow the shrewd city fathers debated hotly a similar matter: whether they would appropriate -L-15,000 ($72,900) to entertain the Sovereigns next July. Cried Councilman Douglas MacConaughty, striking the table with his cane: " 'Twud na' be worth it! Ha' we a brass farthin' too many in the common good funds?" His peers, more hospitable, voted the appropriation 55 to 52.

*A great luxury. The teeth are ground down to one-tenth natural size with prodigious labor by the simple Fiji Tiffanys and Cartiers.