Villagers in the Anglo-French colony known as the New Hebrides worship England’s Prince Edinburgh as God.
For centuries, perhaps millennia, villagers (of New Hebrides) had believed in an ancient story about the son of a mountain spirit venturing across the seas to look for a powerful woman to marry.
They believed that unlike them, this spirit had pale skin.
Somehow the legend gradually became associated with Prince Philip, who had indeed married a rich and powerful lady.
Villagers would have seen his portrait – and that of the Queen – in government outposts and police stations run by British colonial officials.
Their beliefs were bolstered in 1974, when the Queen and Prince Philip made an official visit to the New Hebrides. Here was their ancestral spirit, resplendent in a white naval officer’s uniform, come back to show off his bride.
“He’s a god, not a man,” the chief told me emphatically, pointing at the portraits.
None of the cult followers can read or write.
As Philip turns 86 and they are planning to mark the occasion with a feast and ceremonial drinking of kava, an intoxicating brew made from the roots of a pepper tree which makes your mouth go numb.
They have even acquired a large Union flag which they are going to run up a bamboo flag pole.
50 bucks says George W. will be an island God within the next 100 years.
Free Thought Forum 
Some of the Prince’s hilarities:
He once advised British students not to stay too long in China for fear of becoming “slitty-eyed”.
And he asked a group of stunned aborigines if they still threw spears at each other.
By: montiff on June 13, 2007
at 3:57 pm