Word: feathering
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...death stalked the village of Sotouboua (pop. 500) in northern Togo. Streets were deserted, and only the throb of a tom-tom broke the still ness. Next day the men of the village sallied forth to perform the ritual that is supposed to frighten demons away. Some wore fluttery feather headdresses and grotesque carved masks; others chewed the bark of a native bush until the drool stained their chins a deep orange color. Several of them gripped snakes and rats between their teeth...
Just like birds of a feather...
...retired Brigadier Alasdair MacLean of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, who still wears his tartan trews and Glengarry cap, clings to his silver-topped swagger stick ("I'm sort of superstitious about the damned thing"). As reinforcements for his North American campaign, MacLean has added 18 feather-footed British Columbia Highland Lassies (all daughters of Canadian servicemen) and for Manhattan, 57 Fiji islanders, representing more than one-third of the crown colony's present army. Mostly muscular six-footers as tall as their names (like Lance Corporal I. R. Maravunaqaraidakuwaqa), they stripped down to palm skirts...
They were lovely hangers for any dress. Baroness Fiona Thyssen slinked down the runway in harlequin pants by Galitzine. Princess Luciano Pignatelli drifted by in Valentino's feather-and-sequin coat. Princess Ira von Furstenberg pranced on in a Mondrian dress by St. Laurent. And princely P.R. Man Serge Obolensky, who had rounded up his titled friends to stage the haute couture parade, beamed as 2,600 ladies and their husbands paid $10 apiece to jam into Alexander's department store in Manhattan to see what fancy duds a bargain outfit could include on its racks -and incidentally...
Each with its own formal geometry, patterns proliferated with a folkloric poetry all their own: Triple Irish Chain, Windmill, Wild-Goose Chase, Princess Feather, the Drunkard's Path. Some drew from the Bible, such as Rose of Sharon, Star of Bethlehem, or Jacob's Ladder. Others were celebrations of American history: Whig's Defeat, Eagles and Stars, and red, white and blue flag patterns. Others incorporated Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs or laurel leaves, in recognition of Napoleon's neoclassic symbol of glory. Superstitious quilt makers often spoiled the symmetry deliberately in order not to imitate...