TONGATABU. 131 



in very many schools in England ; that they should be 

 thankful 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. 

 WlieweU undertook to translate to the scholars what had 

 been said. 



There was room to beheve 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 tliis respect is no Avorse off 

 than Enoiand has heen. 



In the afternoon of the same day the scholars took their 

 turn to a;ive us a fete. It came off 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 

 in rings, dwelling 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., ja. 154. 



