The Holbrook news., 1912-03-08

TUT 6OluG LAluS Wc6 lCAdlC0 "
 " by an Englishman at luncheon
 downtown recently.
 You have done so much for me.
 MT. Black, since I have had to be
 here on this steel business," he said,
 you have put yourself out to be so hospitable that I shall always think of you as worthy to be Society Is lander.
 Flows that? Why unless they have changed very much since was in the middle of the Pacific some years ago. the Society Islanders are the most hospitable people in the world. Of course. their way of doing things isn't just like New York or London But it's right from the heart
 Very often, when 1t comes to the test, the heather in his blindness evens up pretty well with the white man in taking care of his guests, remarked another member of the party. Here on Fifth avenue or Broadway what they do sounds queer. but on the spot it feels good. If I should tell you that a North Ameri- can Indian tribe I dropped in upon late one afternoon gave me Turkish bath to remove the dust and fatigue of a long days journey through the desert. you'd say I was crazy. would n't you? Well. that is exactly what happened
 ''The Indians were the Havasus. or the Havasupais, whichever way you want to call them When arrived at this village of theirs. hot and GOV cred with grime, I was as complete a stranger as there ever was. The chief motioned me to a seat beside him, and was we'll satisfied in being received kindly and allowed to rest No Indian, as you know, ever talks much, and hence no warning of what was to come was given me. It could hardly have been much over half an hour before a youth beckoned me. I found out afterward that he was a son of the chief. intrusted with these special rites of hospitality toward strangers.
 "He led me to a tent Later learned that was known as the first guest house. It was practically air tight, its entrance covered by a double flap of blankets In it women of the village had. ever since my arrival, been placing red hot stones, under the direction of the lad By now it was filled with heat and steam.
 "The boy told me it was part of his duty to care for my clothes while l went inside made a record in get ting them of There never was a bath as delightful as that"
 odd Custom of African Tribe.
 My story will seem tame after those of you two," put in the man who was giving the luncheon. ''but there's tribe in Africa. the Ovambos. whom Stanley or Livingstone or Lord Kitch- ener or Roosevelt-somebody. at any the Merry People, that have your Tahitans and Indians beaten a mile when it comes to oddities of | hospitality. Their way isn't nearly l hearing about What do they do? | Hold water in their mouths as soon | as you are seated at a meal and squirt | It in your face. You are expected to be greatly delighted at this. and then | your host comes around to you and | rubs your face and head with fresh | butter If white guest protests he is looked upon with suspicion.
 "There is another African tribe, you may like to know. the Nuebrs of central Africa, that have a custom very like this. They greet those 1 hey are about to entertain by spit ing, yes, splitting. on your hands and lace. It is the most gross and bitter insult if you do not spit back. One traveller, it is said. who didn't know of this custom. became terribly angry It being spat upon. His first thought was to knock the negro down. Then. n his rage. a better way suggested tself He spat in the mans face good md hard. To his astonishment the ruler of the tribe groveled before Jim. Now I know he said. that you ire a great chiefl'"
 The whimsicalities of hospitality are lpending. though civilization is clear ng them away piecemeal It may not ,e true. as some have predicted, that l New Zealander will ever stand and ook on the ruins of London bridge, because by the time that famous itructure does fall there will not be my New Zealanders left, but, as wit