The Villager Knew.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 2 October 1914, Page 2

The Villager Knew.

A missionary meeting, described in Bishop Boyd-Carpenter's " Some Pages of My Life," was held in a village. The Vicar of the parish was an energetic man ; indeed, his energy was deemed by some of his parishioners as somewhat intrusive. At the meeting the missionary gave a vivid account of the cannibal habits of some tribe, to which missionaries had gone, and among whom some had met their death. He described a native feast. He told how at the feast a large pie had appeared. Desirous of reaching the climax of the tragedy by slow degrees of heightening interest", ho dwelt upon lh<- pie. and I hen upon its central ornament. "What was it ? A human thumb !" And then, to iead up e/Tectiveh to the thrilling finnlt\ he turned about and asked, rhetorically, of course, "and whose thumb do you think it was '?" Whereupon a villager saw his opportunity, and answered, " Ise warranl it were Parson Tngham's thumb, for he has it in everyone's pio \" The rest of the story naturally was ineffective.