Masirewa came out
and stood with folded arms among a large crowd talking about me, and no
doubt taking all the credit for my appearance, and staring at me as if
he had never seen me before, so that I felt much inclined to kick him.
In the evening, as I skinned the parrot I had shot, Masirewa told
me how one man had said that he would like to eat the parrot, and
that he had replied: "And the white man too." There was a large and
very interested crowd around me as I worked, and they were very much
astonished when told that the birds in England were different from
those in Fiji, and I was inundated with childish questions about
England. Masirewa seemed to be trying to pass himself off on these
simple mountaineers as a chief, and was clearly beginning to give
himself airs, so that when he started to eat with the "Buli" and
myself, I had to snub him, and told him sharply to clean my gun and
eat afterwards.
I slept the next morning till seven o'clock, and Masirewa told me that
the natives could not understand my sleeping so late, and that they
thought I was drunk on "angona," of which I had partaken the night
before. "Angona" is the same as "kava" in Samoa, and is the national
beverage in Fiji. Masirewa now only wore a "sulu" and discarded his
singlet.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65