CHAPTER X
IN WHICH WE GO EXCURSIONING, PUT ON OUR DISPLAY, AND STAGE AN INTERNATIONAL PARTY

JUST as if the Jamboree in itself wasn't entertainment enough, the Hungarian Scouts had arranged for us excursions to the most interesting places of their country. These trips got under way soon after the opening day and continued throughout the period, and every Scout had an opportunity to go on two of them.

It was awfully hard to decide which two to choose.

We could go to Miskolc and Lilaffured and see the famous stalactite caves. In Eger was an eight hundred year old fortress and a minaret from the days of the Turkish rule.

Balatonfilred boasted of the largest lake of Central Europe-a small ocean it seemed. At Debrecen we could visit the pusztas, steppes, where gulyases-Hungarian cowboys -would show us how they rounded up t horses.

The feature of the trip to Esztergom was boat ride up the Danube to the residence of Cardinal Primate of Hungary, while Sze prided itself in being the second largest of the country. And then, naturally, th was Budapest, the national capital, with bridges, its parliament, royal castle, coronat church, zoo and amusement parks.

Wherever we went, the excursions prove succession of thrills and unusual experien and gave us the real "feel" of Hungary and Hungarian people. The buildings and the s roundings of the various places were different but the friendly spirit everywhere was same.

We had to get up early in the morning catch the special excursion trains and be our way toward the east, the west, the no or the south.

When we arrived at our destination seemed that the whole population had turned out to meet us and to greet us with cheer upon cheer.

A brass band preceded us down the main street where the people stood on the sidewalks many layers deep. Flowers were strewn in our path, bouquets or fruit pressed into our hands. We felt like Lindbergh's coming home from a Paris hop.

Through decorated archways built across the street we marched up to the city hall where the Mayor bid us welcome and practically turned over to us the entire town.

Then we set out to see the sights. Century old buildings passed in review, museums were visited, swimming pools tested. We saw thousands of people dressed in native costumes, small boys with closely cropped hair, little girls in bright colors.

When we were hungry, we were taken to restaurants where Girl Guides served the meals and presented us with various souvenirs.

While eating, a group of Hungarian lads and lassies entertained us with folk dances, to music furnished by a real gypsy band.

The day flew quickly by and in the evening, after another gorgeous meal of genuine Hungarian cooking, we were followed to the station by as many people as had met us upon our arrival.

We got back to camp far into the night, deadly tired, but with the memories of a swell experience and the knowledge of having met real hospitality.

The following days, if we weren't out touring again, we were making friends around camp or training for the great American display which we were to put on in the Sports Arena.

Suddenly, one morning, unannounced, the Regent of Hungary came on a visit to our camp.

We were in the throes of straightening out our tents for inspection, when orderlies came rushing about, telling us that Admiral Horthy was on his way. We had previously been told that when he visited us it would be to see the Scouts at work. Therefore no parade was ar ranged and we went on doing our jobs "trying not to" look too much in his direction.

As he marched through the gateway of America, accompanied by his wife, an adjutant and a number of camp officials, the leaders of our contingent bid him welcome.

He spent almost half an hour looking over our camp, while cameras were perpetually clicking around him. He was supposed to be camera-shy, but didn't seem to mind our shooting, as long as we stayed in the background.

The Regent was very much interested in our tents and our special mattresses, while his wife was particularly fascinated by our kitchens, with their pots and pans and reflector ovens. . .

Then came the last Saturday of the Jamboree. We got hold of the daily camp paper, the Magyar Cserkecz — popularly known as the "Staircase," but really pronounced "Mad-yar chair-case," meaning "Hungarian Scout."

There it was on page 23 and we could believe it or not:

"Indian harcitdncok, cserkeszjatekok. Az Amerikai cserkescek nagy bemutatasca."

On reading this, one of our boys exclaimed, "Gosh! I'm sure glad I was born in a country where I could understand the language.") Or in other words-much easier ones for us —"Indian dances and Scout games. Performed by the Boy Scouts of America."

At four-thirty we were on our way, the whole American contingent, and at five, we made our spectacular entry into the Sports Arena.

More than five thousand people, all that the stands would hold, were gathered there waiting for the display to start. In the center box sat high officials of World Scouting, as the guests of our own Chief Scout Executive.

A signal and our show was on!

The whole arena suddenly became a ten-ring circus of Scout activities.

Here was a group signaling furiously with flags improvised from their brilliant red neck neckerchiefs. Another group was building human pyramids, tearing them down and rebuilding them. Ten Scouts were each making fire with out matches, rubbing wood against wood, in Indian fashion, until finally small flames broke out from the dry tinder. Other Scouts demonstrated the value of the Scout neckerchief in first aid, using it for bandages, slings and tourniquets.

In one corner a Patrol was setting up a camp of four tepee-shaped tents, while in the other end of the field, twenty boys went through the intricate rope-spinning stunts of our western cowboys.

Everywhere you turned your eyes, something was going on at top speed, with the finest possible cooperation and Coordination.

Another signal and the field was again empty. It looked as though the Scouts had been blown away. The audience applauded but it hadn't seen "nothin"' yet!

To the soft, steady beat of the tom-tom, more than half a hundred Indian braves entered in their gorgeous costumes and gathered in a large circle in the center of the Arena.

A small fire was lit and the medicine man opened the council with the ceremony of the peace pipe, pointing its stem in the direction of the four winds.

For more than twenty minutes the audience was held spellbound by the native dances of the American aborigines — the solemn circle dance-the weird devil dance and the mysterious thunder pipe ritual.

Then, suddenly, the dancers stopped a squatted with arms folded across their chests as Count Teleki, the jamboree Camp Chief a Dr. de Molnar, the jamboree Organizer, we led into the circle.

With great ceremony, they were induct into the American jamboree tribe.

A mighty feather headdress was placed the head of Count Teleki, as he was pronounced "Chief-of-Many-Camp-Fires."

Dr. de Molnar was made the Medicine Man of the tribe and "crowned" with the horn bison fur cap. He wore it during the rest the display, like the good Scout he is, in spite of the excessive heat that afternoon. He '" even heard to say, "I like this, you know, it's so nice and warm!"

An enthusiastic applause from the whole audience was the public approval of the new chieftains.

Then the Indians marched out and the rest of the American contingent came on the field again wearing their red neckerchiefs as head

coverings. After an intricate maneuver across the arena, every boy sat down . . . the neckerchiefs spelling out a large "B. P.," of course for the initials of the Chief Scout of the World, but interpreted by some of the audience as a tribute to the fair city of Budapest-or it might be for "Be Prepared."

Still sitting on the field, the boys sang a song of greeting from the Boy Scouts of America to their Brother Scouts of the world.

And the American display had come to a close. . . .

We got home in plenty of time to finish our preparations for our own jamboree Troop's evening undertaking.

Every one of our group had been to several meals and informal camp fires in camps of other nationalities and we had each made loads of friends with Scouts from all over the world.

Now, the time had come for us to be the hosts.

"Each of you may invite your best friend!" our Scoutmaster had said.

It had been a hard task to decide which was the best, but we finally made up our minds.

"I'm bringing down the whole New Zealand contingent!" one of the bunch announced.

The Scoutmaster put down his foot on that. "I said one guest each!"

"That fits perfectly!" said the fellow, with a grin. "There's only one of them!"

As the time approached for the party to begin, to our dismay, our camp was occupied by hundreds of visitors, men, women and children from Budapest. We were wondering how we might suggest to them to step aside, so that we would have room for our guests.

Finally our Scoutmaster came to our rescue. He suggested that a few of us cross the street from our camp and start singing a Hungarian song we had learned.

We followed his advice, with the result that, in a moment, all the visitors had crowded around us.

As soon as we finished, we hustled back to our camp, which was now practically deserted, making it easy enough to make our preparations.

When our guests arrived, there were twentythree nationalities represented at our party.

There wasn't much conversation-the language problem was too great-but aren't a smile and a handclasp the same in every language?

It was so easy to have a good time, every one just fitted into the spirit of the occasion and did his bit.

We tried a few songs first, then an Australian recited a very humorous poem about a Hippopotamaid and a Hippopotaman, who were hippopotamarried-which we understood.

He was followed by a Norwegian Scout singing a humorous song in his native tonguewhich we didn't understand. Yet we enjoyed both immensely.

Song followed song, foreign and English, one after the other.

Our group put on an "African" dance to the tune of Oom-pah-oom-pah-which greatly amused our African friends. They had never seen anything like it.

Then we all joined in the jamboree song, which contained all the Hungarian we knew: "Good work," "Boy Scout," "Cheerio" and "Thanks"-sung to the tune of 'Goodnight, Ladies"

"Jo munkat, Cserkesz! Jo munkat, Cserkesz! Jo munkat, Cserkesz! Servus! Servus! Servus! Koszonom o, Koszonom Koszonom Koszonom Koszonom o, koszonom Godollo jamboree!"

Altogether more truth than poetry.

We had an exciting time when our Scoutmaster asked each of us to find out the name and town of our guests and be ready to announce it.

We had trouble trying to say the apparently intricate names of our foreign friends and they, in turn, seemed to have the same difficulty with our "queer" American ones.

Finally we were ready and went the whole rounds. What fun we had when an especially bad tongue twister made its appearance! Then we all said them together in a loud chorus. It sounded like a giant sneeze!

Next we were told to place our hands on the shoulders of our neighbors, to start for America's favorite dance. Breaking out of the circle, our leader took us in and out and around in snake formation, eventually turning into the mess tent, where hot tea and cold lemonade and cookies awaited us.