The Tribe That Worships Prince Philip

We all know that Prince Philip is divinely blessed with the ability to come up with the most inappropriate quips for any occasion, but according to the Tanna tribe of Vanuatu, he is simply divine:

The inhabitants of Tanna, in the Vanuatu islands, off the Australian coast, believe the Queen’s husband is divine, the incarnation of a spirit who emerged from a volcano and left to marry a great lady.

It was a cult which emerged from the prince’s visit in 1974, and legend has it that the ‘spirit’ will one day return in person.

So, to avoid the villagers’ disappointment that the Duke of Edinburgh couldn’t show for his 89th birthday in June, an anthropology student named Marc Rayner stepped in:

Reporter Amos Roberts said: ‘It was amazing. The locals were waiting with their photographs of the prince, expecting him to appear. ‘The islanders thought the prince’s birthday was the date of a "second coming" and a party was organised in his honour. ‘Instead they got an 18-year-old Scotsman.’

Jim McBeth of The Daily Mail has more: Link (I know how some of you don’t like The Daily Mail, but come on, this is a fascinating article)