What Do Tattoos and Tongue-Wagging Have to Do . . . 

Picture. . . with the adoption of the Welsh national anthem?
Well, you’re going to have to use your imagination on this one. Take a look at the picture. Do you see any skin decorations or anyone sticking out his tongue? Thought not. (Actually, if you look very closely, you can see that the blond guy in the back, just to the left of the center, does indeed have his tongue out.  That’s it as far as I can tell, though.)  And yet this is purported to be the New Zealand All-Blacks rugby team doing a Maori war dance and song called the tongue-wagging “haka” before their 1905 match against the Wales national team. (I’m going to “find explanations in charity” and assume this picture was snapped before the guys had really gotten going.  Surely they did something a little more impressive than this!  Since they’re all Caucasian, they wouldn’t have had the traditional Maori tattoos, so that is indeed a missing authentic detail.)

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