OR AO = se 
III. 
THE MISSION FIELD. 
NNerrvum with its three thousand souls would have seemed 
to Dr. Chalmers a well-defined and manageable parish ; and the 
young missionary, if he had an eye for beauty, must have been 
. Captivated with its exceeding loveliness. I shall leave the de- 
scription of its physical aspects to my son, and ask you to look 
at its inhabitants. The condition of a people may be gauged 
on the one side by looking at their Homes; on the other by 
looking at their TempLes. In what kind of gods do they be- 
lieve? In what family-order do they live? Their Worship and 
their Home-ways determine their character and social state. 
I. The principal Deity of Aneityum was Nugerain. He had 
a name above every name. Like God’s great name “ Jehovah,” 
which the Jews refuse to utter, no one dare use his name un- 
less he belonged to the highest caste. To this god they ascribed 
the origin of their island. He went out fishing one day, and 
having hooked some very ponderous thing, he hauled it up. 
It turned out to be Aneityum. Of their own origin they knew 
nothing. They had a vague tradition of the Fall, however. 
On account of some act of wickedness, they said that their an- 
cestors were doomed to die; otherwise they would have lived 
for ever. 
Nugerain was supposed to have a numerous progeny. These 
were called Natmases. They filled the earth, the air, and the 
sea—each race ruling over its own realm. The sun and moon 
were also deified, and worshipped. with many honours. Human 
