red and twenty from Nuka-hiva alone. _Oui, monsieur, cela se
deperit._" Prayers, and reading and writing, prayers again and
arithmetic, and more prayers to conclude: such appeared to be the dreary
nature of the course. For arithmetic all island people have a natural
taste. In Hawaii they make good progress in mathematics. In one of the
villages on Majuro, and generally in the Marshall group, the whole
population sit about the trader when he is weighing copra, and each on
his own slate takes down the figures and computes the total. The
trader, finding them so apt, introduced fractions, for which they had
been taught no rule. At first they were quite gravelled, but ultimately,
by sheer hard thinking, reasoned out the result, and came one after
another to assure the trader he was right. Not many people in Europe
could have done the like. The course at Hatiheu is therefore less
dispiriting to Polynesians than a stranger might have guessed; and yet
how bald it is at best! I asked the brother if he did not tell them
stories, and he stared at me; if he did not teach them history, and he
said, "O yes, they had a little Scripture history--from the New
Testament"; and repeated his lamentations over the lack of results. I
had not the heart to put more questions; I could but say it must be very
discouraging, and resist the impulse to add that it seemed also very
natural. He looked up--"My days are far spent," he said; "heaven awaits
me." May that heaven forgive me, but I was angry with the old man and
his simple consolation. For think of his opportunity! The youth, from
six to fifteen, are taken from their homes by Government, centralised at
Hatiheu, where they are supported by a weekly tax of food; and, with the
exception of one month in every year, surrendered wholly to the
direction of the priests. Since the escapade already mentioned the
holiday occurs at a different period for the girls and for the boys; so
that a Marquesan brother and sister meet again, after their education is
complete, a pair of strangers. It is a harsh law, and highly unpopular;
but what a power it places in the hands of the instructors, and how
languidly and dully is that power employed by the mission! Too much
concern to make the natives pious, a design in which they all confess
defeat, is, I suppose, the explanation of their miserable system. But
they might see in the girls' school at Tai-o-hae, under the brisk,
housewifely sisters, a different picture of