The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-07

monies too far into the night the Uneon-
Quoted WaWdcrers chose a dark corner
and went to sleep.
Eve apparently took the right step,
for gradually the floor was covered with
bronze forms IN infinitely more graceful
attitudes than we ever achieved, for the
coral stones Of the floor cut into our
shoulders through the tin mats, and we
dared hardly move for fear Of touching
some dusky savage dreaming Of hun
ter's paradise"
In Savai, where they held a similar
levee, they were enthroned on two every
unstable deal chairs" while the admiring
and wondering chiefs crouched around
them on the floor, and one Of them made
a speech IN which he said that never,
never had anything like the "Unconducted
Wanderers" been seen in Savai before.
Mrs. Forbes says:
II looked sharply at Undine, and re-
allied epoplectically that he was speaking
sheer truth, for the spectacle of two dis
hevelled young women eiutching knobbly
sticks of kava-sacred symbol Of chief
tainship-and clad in scarlet silk kimonos
which l had insisted on being much
more suited to the dignity of the occa
sion than undiluied riding kit-from which
protruded large brown top boots, must
have Teen certainly unusual in those SOL
itudesD
What is described as ''the greatest epi-
sode Of our progress happened in
Fijian village, where Hundred magnifi-
cent Warriors" polished with oil and
streaked with charcoal, in thick short
petticoats of hanging straw, and growing
ferns on their heads, gave the EaglisL
women their idea of the Battle of the
Somme.
"Shouldering huge ancient clubs, painted
and carved, the two parties advanced
toward each other with mincing polka
steps After advancing and retiring sew
eral times with warlike gestures and
much brandishing of weapons, they did a
sort Of chasse-croise step, turned around
and danced toward the centre of the
sward with crouching, panther-ike move
ments. At this point all the German party
suddenly fell dead and lay fat on the
ground until the medicine men danced in
among them, sprinkling them with water,
when they Immediately leaped to their
feet and renewed the fray"
For although pictures of the war cut out
of the Illustrated supplements are some
times seen in Fijian villages, the natives
are said to conceive the war as a series
OF duels between Hindenburg and French,
surrounded by two circles Of applauding
armies. When Mrs. Forbes asked the
allied leader his name he replied that
he was Lloyd George. Whereupon she
ASSUMED that "when French is weary,
Lloyd George takes his place in the pas
seul with Hindenburg."
Mrs. Forbes says that some one sug-
gested as a subtitle for her book Tai
Stories Of TtDo Truthful Travellers
Some of her stories Go, as a matter of
fact, seem a little tall Still Dickens is
supposed to have written caricature when
he represents the turnkey as threatening
to lock out the prisoner If he does not
return on time-on which occasion the
prisoner fell to trembling "wisibly." And
yet Mrs. Forbes's story is similar of
prisons in the Tongan Isles of musical
comedy with the sign posted: "Any
prisoners not in by 8 P. NJ. will be
locked out for the night" Perhaps more
confidence might be placed in the strict
veracity of Mrs. Forbes's observations if,
when on our own home ground, she had
not written clos Angeles" more than
once, and "San Gabrir mission, and did
not say of mass in the old Spanish
mission in California that it was attended
solely by Spanish people, and that all
the women wore embroidered shawls, car
ried fans and were bareheaded, save for
"wisp Of black lace" Here convention
seems to speak more than fact.
P,,t ton youob raoorHy,p of ohsoJrfo g, al