A Tender Embrace Read online

eat coconut today, really we should fast till after the ceremony. It is not usual to do it so quickly. But we trust in the Great God Kadavu.”

  The Princess Asmara and Lt Delarosa stood together looking at the fire with some incredulity. Young men were pulling it away with green sticks and vines, chanting “O-vulo-vulo” as they did so. As they cleared away the burning logs, they revealed a bed of large stones, the heat shimmering off them as they glowed dully in the huge pit.

  A long tree fern branch was laid on the stones, pointing at the Bete who was overseeing the process, looking rather worse for wear. He shouted angrily at two men who were pulling a vine across the stones, easing them into place. Seemingly in a fit of bad temper, he proceeded to jump onto some of the stones. Suzanne gripped the Princess’ wrist without realising it, but he just jumped out of the incandescent heat with no ill effects.

  The people were arriving now, standing around the fire place in a big circle. The Great Ratu arrived to stand with the girls. A gap had been left at one side and the Bete went there now, adjusting the tree fern to his satisfaction. The young men were now placing bundles of grass around the fire pit. The Bete checked them, and shouted suddenly and loudly, “Vuto-O!” Suzanne jumped.

  Maru appeared from the bushes, followed in single file by Hinatea, Pat, Silmatea, Rat and Wiwik. The Bete pulled the branch from the fire, smoking badly, and laid it to one side. Maru did not stop but walked straight into the fire pit, walking over the stones in a circle, followed by the others. Hinatea and Silmatea were of course naked, each with a serene smile on their faces, while the others wore grass skirts. Each looked confidently forward and strode over the hot stones without looking down. Pat and Rat followed their girls, looking straight at the back of their heads. As Maru completed a circuit, he moved into the middle of the fire while, at a shout from the Bete, the young men threw the bundles of grass onto the outer stones, where they smouldered. Maru and Wiwik started a chant in Vituan, while Hinatea and Silmatea sang their own song in Pahippian, and the Princess could make out that Pat and Rat were chanting, ‘cool, deep sea’ over and over again as they marched in the middle of the fire, and then Maru was leading them out.

  Later, at the feast, Pat found himself seated between Hinatea and the Princess, opposite Lt Delarosa and the Ratu. Hinatea and the Ratu were discussing the differences between their fire walking, while Pat was finding it very difficult to explain to the girls and the Captain exactly what he had done and why it hadn’t hurt.

  “I thought they weren’t really hot, at first,” he said, “because we had these little amulets of dry grass tied to our ankles and they didn’t burn, but then they threw the grass on the stones and they did burn! Weird! Hinatea got me into the same state of being that I go into when I shoot arrows, which is a sort of higher plane, and then she said the God looked after me. I don’t know. I just felt really strong and powerful. And look! All the inflammation from my cuts has gone.”

  --ooOoo--