ATOLLS 217 



coming of the scientists of the Coral Investigation Committee £o 

 years before, and he led Dr. Gaskell to the site of the deep bore- 

 hole, the mouth of the hole being still visible but choked with 

 vegetation. Apart from the Native Magistrate, who was absent 

 from the island, there were two other important personalties to 

 call upon — the Pastor, and the keeper of the Government Store, 

 Mr. Reher, who sold cloth and bicycles and other commodities 

 whenever they became available to him on the occasional visits 

 of the government store-carrying ship . The Pastor was away work- 

 ing upon his taro patch, it was said, but the visitors must sit 

 down while he was sent for; and while they waited, the Pastor's 

 daughters gave them green coconuts, their tops neatly cut oft like 

 an egg at the breakfast table, so that they might drink the refresh- 

 ing, cold liquid which such immature nuts contain. Like many 

 London Mission Society pastors, he was a Samoan, massive of 

 build and cheerful of nature. He invited the Challengers to his 

 church the following Sunday, a service that everyone on the 

 island attended and where the singing was vigorous. The church 

 at Funafuti has two floors, the main part of the chapel being 

 upstairs. Women with very small children stay below, but the 

 remainder of the little ones sit at the front of the congregation, 

 girls on one side and boys upon the other. There they are under 

 the eyes of two elderly sidesmen who, from time to time through- 

 out the service, walk among them to distribute a hearty bare- 

 footed kick to those who are misbehaving. 



The Pastor had a blind brother who played the harmonium in 

 church and was also led to the meeting house in the evenings 

 during Challenger^ s visit so that he might play for the hulas which 

 were danced in the intervals between the Ellice Island dances. 

 The women and girls invited the sailors to hula with them, much 

 of this dance here being done in a crouching position known in 

 physical training parlance as 'full knees bend', and somewhat 

 painful to untrained Europeans, A hissing noise between the teeth 

 is emitted by both dancers from time to time. 



The local dances are acted by a line of seven or eight perfor- 

 mers, male and female, and consist of numerous actions which 

 become niore vigorous as the dance gathers momentum, 

 accompanied by the rhythmic banging of sticks upon upturned 

 boxes. Eventually the dancers are exhausted and they sink to the 



