That really is a feather in your cap, darling!
‘We watched their wedding’
HE will one day wear the crown, but yesterday Prince William was fitted out in far less formal headwear.
William and his wife Kate put on feathered headdresses on a visit to a village high in the mountains of Pakistan.
On the third day of their tour, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge flew 250 miles north by helicopter from the capital, Islamabad, to the Chitral District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, close to the border with Afghanistan.
There, William was given a traditional feathered Chitrali hat, which he immediately put on, and Kate an orange beaded headdress with a pink feather.
The head feather is a key feature of the traditional dress of the Kalash people, a 3,000-strong animist tribe living in the mountains of the Hindu Kush.
Animism is a belief in the existence of individual spirits that inhabit natural objects.
The Kalash, a minority population whose religion predates Islam, wear feathers to symbolise freedom as well as to show other locals that they are not Muslim.
Kate also tried on a Chitrali hat – bringing comparisons to Diana, Princess of Wales, who wore one on a trip to the region in 1991.
In the village of Bumburet, William was given another, delightfully unexpected, reminder of his late mother.
Liba Qamar, 14, told how her elder sister had been named Diana following the princess’s visit.
When young Diana, now 28, had a boy last year, there was only one name for him – William.
Kate had her camera and took photographs of Liba and her family in their brightly coloured traditional clothing in the backstreets.
The schoolgirl said: ‘ It’s my dream to meet the Royal Family.
‘I have known about Miss Diana and William as my mother Iran gave my older sister the name Diana in 1991 after her visit. Then my sister had a son and she called him William and he is one.
‘I told them I watched the wedding and I cried and I just wanted to meet Mr Prince William and Miss Princess Kate. It was a miracle and I’m so happy.’
The whole village had turned out to meet the royal couple, who were clapped and cheered as they walked through the narrow streets to a square.
Special seats had been made out of carpet for them to watch a dance. Afterwards Kate introduced her husband to the performers, telling them: ‘This is my husband William, Prince William. I’m sorry he didn’t dance too!’
The duke took the teasing well and told the women that he loved their moves.