Whilst In Fiji I Often Came
Across Natives Far From Any Village Who Were Being Followed By Pet
Pigs, As We In England Might Be Followed By Dogs.
Masirewa amused
me more each day by his cheek and self-assurance.
Once I asked him
what he said to the chief of the hut we were in, and he replied:
"Oh! I tell him Get out, you black fellow.' "
We left Namosi early the next morning, a large crowd seeing us off, and
I was sorry to bid farewell to one of the most beautiful spots in this
wide world. We passed through the villages of Nailili and Waivaka,
where I called at the chiefs' huts and held a kind of "at home"
for a few minutes, the people simply swarming in to look at me. The
"Buli" of Namosi had sent messengers on in front to give notice of my
approach, and at each village they had the inevitable hot yams ready
to eat, which Masirewa made the most of. At the entrance to each
village there was usually a palisade of bamboo or tree-fern trunks,
and here a crowd of girls and children would often be waiting, and on
my approach they would set up loud yells and scamper off, till I began
to think that I must look a very ferocious kind of "papalangai." At
Dellaisakau the natives looked a very wild lot. Some of the men had
black patches all over their faces, and some had great masses of hair
shaped like a parasol.
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