Five bare-chested Fijian men dressed in traditional woven grass and leaf skirts sit cross-legged in an open field, deeply engaged in the ancient yanqona (kava) ceremony — the central figure lifts a coconut-shell cup toward a recipient across a carved wooden tanoa bowl, the golden afternoon light catching the ritual in vivid Ektachrome color. Yanqona, prepared from the root of the Piper methysticum plant, is Fiji's most sacred social and ceremonial drink; no formal welcome of a visiting dignitary or chief is complete without it, a tradition unbroken for centuries. Mailed air mail from Auckland, New Zealand to a William and his wife in Batavia, New York, the sender — writing in a looping hand — shares warm impressions of Australia and New Zealand, noting they "don't have little cold Feb. 19." Two New Zealand 5-cent Huia bird flower stamps frank the card.