¥ 
MATAISUVA. 85 
Though most of the white Wesleyan missionaries are 
perfect masters of the language, they own themselves 
that the native teachers they had trained generally beat 
them in the choice of local illustrations. Of course, 
there is occasionally a want of tact on the part of the 
latter. Thus, one of them, wishing to illustrate how 
wisely in everything nature had adapted the means to 
the end, chose the hand, and commenced by saying, 
“ Now, when you eat a human hand, you will perceive,” 
etc. This illustration would have sounded odd to a 
Christian congregation at home, but never excited any 
notice amongst a people just emerging from cannibalism. 
The church at Mataisuva is not so large as that at 
Bau, but it is much better finished, and some of the 
beams under the roof are covered with different-coloured 
fibres of the cocoa-nut worked in various elegant patterns. 
The ridge-beams, always projecting on both ends, accord- 
ing to strict Fijian customs, are ornamented with white 
shells (Ovwlum ovum, Swb.), and in front of the church 
there are some curiously-cut stems of tree-ferns. Alto- 
gether the building is a fine specimen of native ar- 
chitecture, and the only thing to complete it is a good 
tolling bell. Hitherto the congregation has been obliged 
to be called together by large drums, made of Tavola 
wood, beaten by thick and short pieces of wood,—a con- 
trivance which may be heard for several miles around, 
but sounds essentially unchristian. 
The Rey. William Moore, as an apt Fijian scholar, 
devotes some of the spare moments he can snatch to a 
subject hitherto much neglected, that of collecting the 
“mekes,” or old songs of the natives, now fast fading 
