Again a beautiful tappa cloth was spread for me, and then ten maidens
entered, and, sitting in a semi-circle, began to chew a root called
kava, which, when sufficiently masticated, they returned into a
calabash, water being poured on the result. Meanwhile, the Prince,
dreamily and ever so gently, was rolling some kind of weed between his
fingers. About the time the maidens had finished, the Crown Prince's
cigarette was ready. A small calabash of the Result was handed to me,
and the cigarette accompanied it. The Crown Prince sat directly opposite
me, lit his own cigarette, and handed the matches. I distinctly remember
the first half-dozen puffs of that cigarette, the first taste of kava
it had the flavour of soft soap and Dover's powder. I have smoked
French-Canadian tobacco, I have puffed Mexican hair-lifters, but Heaven
had preserved me till that hour from the cigarettes of a Crown Prince
of Tonga. As I said, the pillars multiplied; the mats seemed rising from
the floor; the maidens grew into a leering army of Amazons; but through
it all the face of the Crown Prince never ceased to smile upon me
gently.

There were some incidents of that festival which I may have forgotten,
for the consul said afterwards that I was with his Royal Highness about
an hour and a half. The last thing I remember about the visit was the
voice of the successor to the throne of Holy Tonga asking me blandly in
perfect English: "Will you permit me to show you the way to the consul's
house?"

To my own credit I respectfully declined.

THE BLIND BEGGAR AND THE LITTLE RED PEG

As Sherry and I left the theatre in Mexico City one night, we met a
blind beggar tapping his way home. Sherry stopped him. "Good evening,"
he said over the blind man's shoulder.

"Good evening, senor," was the reply. "You are late."

"Si, senor," and the blind man pushed a hand down in his coat pocket.

"He's got his fist on the rhino," said Sherry to me in English. "He's
not quite sure whether we're footpads or not--poor devil."

"How much has he got?" asked I.

"Perhaps four or five dollars. Good business, eh? Got it in big money
mostly, too--had it changed at some cafe."

The blind man was nervous, seemed not to understand us. He made as if
to move on. Sherry and I, to reassure him, put a few reals into his
hand--not without an object, for I asked Sherry to make him talk on.
A policeman sauntered near with his large lantern--a superior sort of
Dogberry, b