HOLIDAY IN FIJI.

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 7

HOLIDAY IN FIJI.

CRUISE IN A CUTTER.

By

Impressionist.

During a delightful holiday spent in Fiji this winter, among the many interesting discoveries we made was this—how to find the correct answer to the conundrum, “When is a surprise party not a surprise party?” the proper reply being “When it takes place in Fiji.” And thereby hangs a tale. In the course of one of our wanderings we had taken steamer to Lautoka, and ’.tad travelled down to Sigatoka by the one free railway in the world, and were wondering if we w.ould have to do the remaining 60 miles back to Suva on foot, when an auxiliary cutter turned up and saved J.he situation. Like Ulysses of old, we were much longer in getting back than we anticipated. It took us three days to do that trip. Like him also we were not traveling de luxe. She was only a-16-ton cutter, and the engine was housed in what used to be known as the cabin, so we slept on he hatch, and as there were 14 of us all told there was not much room for promenading. Every now and then our Fijian-captain got anxious about the bilge water, and so did we, for when they got busy with the pump there was only one place we could think of, and that was Footscray. The pumping, was generally done before breakfast—as an appetiser, I suppose—and then on the spot where we had slept the cloth was laid, and we were offeree tinned meat and tinned fish straight from the tin. We did not meet with any Cyclops, however, so things might have been worse. We called at several villages along the coast to take in bananas, but at the last village at which we called, through some mistake, there were no bananas, and the trader was very disgusted. The old proverb, “It’s an ill-wind that blows nobody any good,” however, was once more justified, for had there been any bananas there would have been no surprise party. Instead of staying at this village for one night, as was originally intended, the captain determined to go on to Yanutha, an island about 30 miles distant from Suva, anchor in x J ay there till the moon rose, and.then make a straight run to. Suva. We arrived there about 8 u.m., and it was so dark the captain had to direct the man at the wheel -from the top of the mast. Everything was made shipshape by 9 p.m., and we had hopes of settling down for the night, when we noticed an unwonted activity on th- part of the crew, and we asked the meaning of._ it. We were told that they were all going up to the town for the night, and we were given a hearty .nvitation to accompany them. J fter a little hesitation we decided to go. The beginning of the adventure was not very promising. We have never travelled on the famous “rocky roads to Dublin,” and if they are -anything like the stony track we stumbled along, we never want to. If they had tried to make a path to keep visitors from coming to their village they coifld not have done better. To make matters worse for us the boy who carried the lantern would insist on walking behind the tulla tulla out of respect, and the light of the lantern was often missing When we wanted-it most. Now and then we came to a ravine bridged by- a trunk of a cocoanut tree, and we thought of Blondin, and wished for sufficient of his skill and equipoise to enable us to walk those narrow ways in safety and with confidence. However, we got across' after a prayerful interval, and then came half a mile of the worst road we have ever travelled on. But we reached the village. To our. surprise there were no lights in the houses, and not a single dog came out to greet us. The people must be all in bed. We remonstrated with our guide. We told him it was not decent to disturb unsuspecting people in this’ fashion, but he only laughed, and told us to stay where we were until he had interviewed the Buli; who is a "kind of Mayor in the village, and find out if we were welcome. Suddenly a door opened, and let out a stream of light. Then we remembered that there were no windows in the houses, only doors, and, of course, when the door was shut no light could be seen. We wished heartily we had said nothing to our guide. . - After a time he returned and said everything was all right, and then the village began to wake up. We heard voices and laughter everywhere. -Even the dogs seemed to be making up for lost, time.;- Soon we were conducted by one of the villagers to a large house of one room, about 20ft by 40ft. The floor was covered with beautiful clean niatting, and the place was scrupulously clean. The only

furniture we could see"was a smoky lamp. There were quite a number of men sitting down tailor wise, but the womenfolk had disappeared. We tried to sit down like the men, but premonitions of cramp made us very anxious, and we were glad when the Buli through the interpreter-told us to make cursives comfortable, and ordered pillows to be brought in. — But soon the scene that was being enacted before us so absorbed pur attention that we had no time for anything else. What struck us with wonder was the mat-ter-of-fact way in which they accepted us as guests Tor the night. They smiled and chatted away- as though having -a dozen guests thrust upon them W£S a real pleasure. We tried to imagine what kind of a reception our surprise party- would have got in a-Melbourne house, and imagination faile'd us. One of the boys slid along the floor over to the Buli, and offered our gift, a bunch of kava roots. The Buli made a speech in reply, which seemed to make everyone hajyiy, and a little later another bunch of kava.xoots was presented to our boy, an'd there was more speechifying. Then the kava bowl wasbrought.in, and the kava root was ground up, and placed in the bowl. In the good old days the village maidens used to chew the.root with their teeth, and—forgive us, gentle reader, for we have tried to find a nicer word —expectorate it into the bowl. Any intending visitor, to Fiji will be glad to learn that that is one of the things that is not done now. They pound it on a stone instead. Water- is then poured upon it, and it is ready for drinking. We have heard it frequently stated that it tastes just like soap suds, but we do not think it is quite as nice as that. The natives are very fond of it, and also many of the Europeans. It is marvellous what you can learn to like if you only try. The barman or butler (we could not find oiit what his real title was) advances to the Buli with a cup made from” a coconut shell full of kava, places it before him, claps his hands several 'times, and offers the - cup to him, and while he drinks the rest cry “A-a-a-a-h,” and when he has drunk he says “Mathah.” This ceremony is _ reported m the case of every guest. The tulia tulla 'was excused, for which- he was grateful;— Fourteen times the kava bowl went round that night, and 14 times the unfortunate victims had to drink, for it is a serious breach of etiquette to refuse. ' The kava, when taken too freely, produced a curious kind of Intoxication, as at least one of the inexperienced was to learn that night, to his sorrow. It makes a-rtnan drunk in his legs only, leaving the rest of his bodj quite sober. ■

During an interval in the kava drinking about 20 girls, dressed in th’eir best and garlanded with flowers, performed the “Rieke, the national dance, in our honour. It was a pretty sight, and the graceful way in which they used their hands was a revelation. Then they sang the old folk songs of Fiji and of Tonga. They had no instruments to accompany them, but a leader would begin a wild, weird chant, and all the rest would take it up. - They sang for an hour and a half such wailing cadences as made us think of battles and cooking ovens, and savagery' generally, though we knew not a word of what they sang; After each song we called out “Venaka,” which means good, until our guide told us that as long as ye applauded they would .continue singing, so we refrained and they ceased, and. then we were brought back to reality with a bound, for the man next to us, who had been there before, announced that the collection would be taken up. . We would thus warn all those who are in the habit of putting threepence in the plate on Sunday that it won’t do here. "It cost us four shillings each, and it was money well spent, ft was now past midnight, and we were longing for the moon to rise, for while some of the boys were flirting, others were snoring. •„ About half-past 2 the captain awoke, shook himself, tied his big red towel about his head, looked out of the door, announced that the moon was up, and ordered us all follow him down to the boat. The little Indian took up the lantern and started, and we followed. Mr X tried to follow us, but it was a pitiful attempt. The kava had done its deadly work. He was as,, sober as. we were, but his legs were absolutely drunk. Had he been a psychologist he would have. realised that the conditions were ideal for retrospection, but he wasn’t, so he only swore, in a suppressed kind of way.—Our first difficulty was to negotiate a tree across a ravine. How Mr X didit will remain a mystery for all-time. We had just got safely across when someone behind us called out that we had gone the wrong way, and there was nothing-for it but to go back. I have never seen a man so put out as Mr X was. -There was no' suppressed swearing this time. The throttle was wide open. He cursed himself for being such a fool as to drink kava; he cursed the Indian boy for being such an ass as to take the wrong turning. In fact, there was not very much that he'

didn’t curse that had the slightest connection with his present misfortune. It seemed’to do his legs,good, however, for he got over the log again without a great deal of trouble. \Ve finally got on the right track, and after many minor mishaps we reached the shore and shouted for. the boat. At last we got on board and rolled ourselves up in our rugs. The engine was started, the sail hoisted, and we put out to sea, and in due course we reached Suva.