146

DISEASES OF THE NATIVES.

In the afternoon we were present at the catechetical instruction of the children, by Repaparu, a chief who lives in this vicinity. There were a hundred and four of these little ones assembled round the patriarchal teacher; among these we observed but one who had any personal defect; the rest were healthy and cheerful, sound in mind and limb. The sight was beautiful, but its moral aspect was yet more so to the eye of faith, at once seeing and foreseeing the effects of Christianity thus supplanting paganism on a soil which the latter had cursed with thorns and briars, through unrecorded ages past.

In the evening we distributed medicines for the use of men, women, and children, who came to us, afflicted with a complaint (very prevalent just now) which occasions great difficulty of breathing, but which soon gives way to such simple remedies as we may venture to recommend. Mr. Nott says that he remembers several occasions when epidemic disorders have visited these remote regions, brought by strangers from the other side of the globe. A grievous ulcer, at one time, was thus introduced, which spared neither chiefs nor people, nor the Missionaries themselves; and a canoe coming hither from the Leeward Islands, while this plague raged, took back the infection to their shores. It does not appear that the children here are subject to such infectious disorders as prevail in Europe; the small-pox, measles, hooping-cough, croup, &c., are unknown. Scrofulous complaints are common, and make shocking ravages. There are a few lepers; we have seen one in attendance on the king; his skin is white, covered with a scaly scurf, and exceedingly unsightly; his hair and eye-brows are of a flaxen colour, and his eyes very tender. The disease is not considered contagious. Consumptive cases occur, and cut off many of the young.

BURIAL OF A CHILD.

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Nov. 10. The corpse of a child was interred this morning, according to the Christian rites now observed here. The coffin, shaped as in England, was neatly covered with white native cloth, bound about with cinet. While borne on the road, a mat, for a pall, was thrown over it, but when set down at the grave-side this was removed and spread on the grass. The Missionary (Mr. Wilson) having read a chapter from the New Testament, prayed, and delivered a brief discourse. The coffin was then let down into the ground, by slips of purau bark, which served for cords, and the mat, folded up, being spread upon it, the earth was thrown in, and the grave closed. What seemed to us remarkable was, that the father himself assisted in depositing the remains of his offspring in the dust, and was the first to begin filling up the opening by pushing the earth into it. This, however, he did with affecting solemnity, though not a tear rose in his eye. The mother was not present.

We have learnt that there is no class of names here appropriated exclusively to either sex. Parents give their children such as they please, which are often chosen from local or incidental circumstances, and are sometimes absurd enough. Thus there is a boy, in this neighbourhood, who is called Vahineino, which means a bad woman; also a girl, Taata-maitai, a good man. Children do not take the names of their parents, and each person has but one at a time; this, however, he may change at will, and go by ten or more in the course of his life; but formerly no one durst appropriate that of the sovereign, which would have been death; and so sacred was this prohibition that if there were a slight resemblance only, between a subject's name and the king's, the former must be abandoned. Hence we have never met with either person or thing called by any sound at all like Pomare. As this proscription extended to

the whole family of the Arii, or blood-royal, and also to the principal chiefs, the names of their vassals and inferiors, nay, those even of plants and animals (to avoid desecration), were wont to be changed when any of the privileged order received at birth, or afterwards adopted, similar ones. In their heathen state, the designations which many persons bore were such as characterized the national impurity of manners and grossness of mind. Christianity has, in this respect, wrought a happy reformation; the Missionaries, of course, refusing to acknowledge any convert or baptize any child by an improper name. The king's name, and his alone, is still regarded as forbidden to the multitude, though respectable people are said to forbear using it from reverence to their prince rather than regard to any assumed monopoly on his part. This is the only trait of a savage custom left, which we have yet found in these islands, and at any rate it is a harmless, though not an insignificant one, when regarded as the last memorial of a tyranny passed away which reached the very names of the slaves upon whom it was exercised.

Nov. 6. This evening, after the Missionary prayer-meeting, many persons followed us to our home; when they had sat awhile they informed us that they were come to see some fire-works, which they had heard we could shew them. At first we were quite at a loss to guess what could have given rise to such a report, till recollecting that, yesterday, we had tried some phosphoric matches, which we had brought with us, we concluded that these must be the fire-works of which they had been told. Accordingly we gratified the simple people exceedingly, when we exhibited the process of lighting a few such matches by introducing them into a phial containing the chemical preparation for that purpose. Repaparu, the aforementioned

PHOSPHORIC MATCHES.

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chief, coming in, stood astonished, as at the performance of a miracle, when he witnessed this well-known experiment. Being invited to dip a match himself, he held the apparatus at arms' length, and tremblingly complied. He succeeded, and was delighted with the result; but his success could not embolden an ancient warrior, one who had fought many a battle, and faced the greatest dangers in the field, to touch the phial, or even to come near it; he was panicstruck at the mysterious spectacle of light coming out of darkness, though the simple method of producing fire by the friction of two pieces of wood, among his own countrymen, is, in reality, much more curious and surprising to the eye of an intelligent stranger. Frequently, when the natives examine our various articles, which may be new to them, they exclaim, "wonderful Britain!" Last night we put together a French lamp, and lighted it, whereupon our old landlord, overpowered with amazement, cried out, "Tahiti ino !" "Beretané maitai!" "Tahiti bad! Britain good!" Unwilling that he should feel any prejudice against his own country, which we saw was rising in his mind, we replied, Aita; Tahiti maitai,"—" No; Tahiti is good."

Two grasshoppers were brought to us;-the one called vivi, of a delicate straw-colour, an inch in length, but more slender than the English insect, the antennæ also are longer; the other a small green one, half of the size of the former, and more compact in its proportions. There is a remarkable paucity of all kinds of animals in this part of the world, except of fishes, whose varieties as well as numbers are very great.

Nov. 7. We went to the chapel this morning to see the schools. That for adults commenced at six o'clock with singing and prayer. There were between two and three hundred

150

APPREHENSIONS OF A DISTURBANCE.

present, whose names were called over, each answering to their own. A chief superintended the lessons; the people read one to another, some in elementary books, others in the Scriptures; many with great fluency. At the end of an hour they went away, when the children came in, with their teachers. This attendance also lasted no more than an hour. The portions of time devoted to instruction are necessarily short, but adapted to the circumstances of the people, who, having been unaccustomed either to close mental application, or personal confinement, would be wearied by longer exercises. But these brief seasons often recurring, and the minds of the learners, both old and young, being quick of apprehension, and their memories tenacious, they make surprising progress.

Intelligence has just been received from Eimeo, that the king is worse-indeed, in imminent danger. Should he die at this time it is apprehended that there may be a serious struggle among the chiefs of this island for the ascendancy; jealous symptoms occasionally appearing. Should such a convulsion take place, neither our property nor our lives would be very safe, in the reaction, or rather the resurrection, of heathenism, which is not dead but sleeping in the hearts of the unconverted; for we cannot forget that the profession of Christianity is not Christianity, however happily influential in restraining evil it may be under ordinary circumstances; but in the "time of temptation" what can be expected from those who "have no root in themselves ?" Our fears, however, may be groundless, and arise from our inexperience of the improved character of the whole people, and the regenerated character of a great many, who constitute the Christian churches among them.

Nov. 8. We were presented with a bunch of bananas, of extraordinary size, weight, and number of fruits; of the