Note 23 — Chapter X

I think the most incongruous instance that has come under our notice of this adoption of certain English goods, was when a large number of the wild heathen mountaineers assembled to meet the Governor—many of them atoning for lack of raiment by the care bestowed on their mass of hair dressed in upright spiral curls, which makes the head resemble a gigantic mop. Of course during the interview they remained bareheaded (as essential a mark of respect in Fiji as is a huge turban in India). But when they subsequently replaced the accustomed veil of thin gauze-like tappa, they proceeded to tie it up with red tape, little dreaming what visions of dull routine were therewith connected in the minds of the white strangers.