TONGATABU. 131 



iu very many schools in England ; that they should be 

 thankfid for the advantages of schoohng with which they 

 were blessed, and try to improve themselves, and be grate- 

 ful to their missionaries and teachers for the trouble and 

 time they had bestowed upon them.' The Eev. Mr. 

 Whewell undertook to translate to the scholars what had 

 been said. 



There was room to beUeve that the education of the 

 children at Nukualofa, which had been neglected, but was 

 now vigorously attended to, owed this benefit to the in- 

 trusion of the Catholic priests, against whom it was a defen- 

 sive measure.^ It would seem to be the fate of education 

 everywhere to excite no interest except as it may be made 

 an auxiliary of sect. Tonga in this respect is no worse off 

 than England has been. 



In the afternoon of the same day the scholars took their 

 turn to give us a fete. It came oflf on the lawn of the 

 Wesleyan mission house, where a great number of young 

 girls and some boys had assembled in order to play what 

 they called the game of ' One-y, two-y, three-y, four-y,' 

 which words are sung in a monotonous tone by some, while 

 others answer with the same equivalents in the Tongan 

 tongue, ' Taha, na, tolu, fa.' Thus singing they go round 

 iu rings, dwelUng some little time on each leg, and bending 

 up the other and trotting round with a bent knee, and flap- 

 ping their hands up and down in the air, and then smacking 

 them against their bodies, the upper parts of which were 

 ' Erskine, ibid., p. 154. 

 * K 2 



