BARBARIAN VISITORS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 122, 23 May 1908, Page 15

BARBARIAN VISITORS.

Raisuli's merry,, men, who Have come to show civilised audiences hqw are 'done in Morocco, "-will uiid''injiny people ■ready- in turn \o 'entertain thesn. "VVo -havo not noVv a Monckton Milnoe, but . there are still people who give breakfasts ,aiujl other entertainments' which do not interfere with the night's show. It is ticklish work, -however, .to. receive at your table a dozen strapping fellows whoso ignorance Of your ways is equalled only by your igAorance' of theirs, irank Buckland i wa3 'the 'last man in 'thrf world to bo disconcerted 'in such circumstances, but dis- ' aster overtook him when he lunched the Maori warriors wjho Were pver here sorno time ago. His one word of ' Maori was"kapai."' This means "gjood," but it, is not capable of making much of a conver- • safiou, no matter how A-arJed the inflexion wjth' which it is repeated.^, Talk was at a disdount, but after his guests had polished off fourteen, pounds of prime beef ho felt thie ho might fitly use his one word as , a signal for rising from the table. All went, well whilo th'o naturalist was showing his curiosities until ho opened a box containing threo dozen slow-worms which ho had newly receivjeQ. Tho Maoris throw off all pretence at civilisation. With yells of terror they bolted, through the open, window into HlO garden. They leapt the fence like deer, scattering over tho , gardens adjoining xintil they saw an open 1 window at which an elderly lady sat sewings jUttering their war cry thirteen to tho dozen, they bore down on, this. Seeing the yelling savages innking for her , the' poor soul thought that fiunds incarnate had suddenly taken possession of her garden. Sho fle'cl: They leapt through tho window after her. Happily, ehe survived tho shock, for t/ie interpreter was now able •to overtake thorn and explain that there was no harm in the slo\v-v/onns. Tho Maoris had thought that those were creations of jho Evil Olio intended for their destruction. All came right iv the end," and tho chief of the gileqts expressed through thp interpreter 'lv's desire to "moko" Buckland — that is tp tatoo him — as a way of showing the gratitude of the