A Torrid Affair In Fiji

CAME an impatient ting-a-ling from the telephone.

It was the neighbour’s son, disturbing the peace and quietness of a glorious summer day.

“Would you people care to see a foot ball match this afternoon?”

I roused myself from the lethargy in duced by 90 degrees in the shade.

“Football match?” quoth I. “In this heat? Don’t be funny.’’

The N.S. got annoyed.

“I tell you I’m not being funny. The game is to take place on the village ra-ra at two o’clock sharp.”

“Oh yeah?” said I, knowing full well how sharp a Fijian “sharp’’ would be.

“Well we shall be there, so please calm down. You make me dizzy.”

Whereupon, in the vicinity of 1.30 pip emma, we ambled along the road to the village, where, on arrival, we were given the place of honour under a green canopy on a slight elevation.

Apparently, we were disgustingly early according to native standards. The vil lagers were still in the midst of kai-kai. judging by the evidence of bulging cheeks and masticating jaws that ap peared around the doorposts of various huts. Kai-kai. with the Fijians, is a lin gering affair.

Play commenced at 3.30 p.m. I thought it would.

The finer points of the art of football quite escaped me. but I was entertained by the antics of the players.

The ground space was rather limited — a few huts dotted the arena. Around these the players dodged in dexterous fashion. Such a trifle as a hut or two worried them not at all. In fact. I think it added spice to the game.

Occasionally, a mob would vanish al together, to stage a private tussle behind a hut, and we palpitating spectators were in an agony of doubt concerning the outcome. Spasmodic sounds of grunts, thumps, smacks, and pounding of leather were wafted out to us, until suddenly a perspiring player emerged in triumph with the ball at his toe. Loud cheers!

When the game had been in progress for half an hour and no goals to either side, Peni. of one team, and Joe, of the other, collided head-on —both seeing stars, no doubt.

Peni vowed, with flashing eyes, that Joe had done it with malice aforethought which Joe hotly denied—also with flash ing eyes.

In two ups, sparks were flying, fists were swinging and the two combatants were well on the way to a black eye apiece.

Everybody bellowed at everybody else —I almost felt like doing.my bit—and whenever the referee opened his mouth, someone almost jumped into it. So he gave up trying to speak, and wandered into a hure to console himself with a lump of taro!

The uproar continued unabated, until an old chief appeared and commanded silence. t»

With stern looks, stern words and stern gestures, he quelled them. Weren’t they ashamed of themselves, he de manded, for behaving like madmen, in front of the vava lagisf He gestured in our direction, and we tried to look suit ably horrified and disgusted.

Of course, any further thought of foot ball was banished, and the chastened warriors, with their respective teams, ad journed to the bures to discuss the up heaval.

We were still chuckling as we trod our homeward way. and I could not resist a parting shot at the neighbour’s son: “Oh; Bill, did you say ‘football’ or ‘footbrawl’?”

Amel.

Mr. E. A. Feldt, District Officer in the N.G. Administration, sailed from Bris bane with his wife by the August Mon toro.

Mr. J. Downs, at one time a sawmiller ; n Papua for several years, and who has been settled down as a trader in Bris bane for some years, has returned to the tropics as a sawmiller, in connection with the promising timber trade that is opening up in New Britain.