The Work, 17 
woman fell from a cocoanut tree and was killed. Her husband 
wished her to have christian burial, and not to be cast into the 
sea; but the relatives came in force, demanding her body. 
The christian people were inclined to resist them; but Mr. 
Geddie, having first cased the body in a shroud, placed it be- 
fore them, and, in a kindly way, told them that it mattered 
nothing to the poor woman where she was buried, and that, 
although he hated the practice of throwing their dead into the 
sea, if they insisted on having it they might take it. The 
heathen party were divided. Their division grew into a quarrel. 
“Let him bury it,” sorhe cried out. “Is that your decision ?” 
he asked. There was no answer. And so the body was borne 
to the grave, and in the presence of her heathen relatives prayer 
was offered. And thus the first christian burial took place on 
Aneityum. 
On the 24th April of this year Mr. Geddie wrote: “ Our 
prospects are beginning to brighten a little. We have been 
sowing in tears, but, we have some reason to hope, not in vain. : 
Some of the natives are apparently in a thoughtful state, and 
I have'had some applications for baptism—a man notorious for 
his opposition to Christianity having placed himself under in- 
struction. He says he is tired of the old system, and wishes to 
learn the truth. He is one of the greatest sacred men in the 
district, and has lived by the superstitions of the people.” 
“ Among the number of enquirers,” he wrote again, “is Kopaio, 
a brother of Nohoat—a thorough savage, notorious for his 
wickedness. He isa violent hater ofall white men. He has 
lately commenced attending our services. When we first came 
to the island he regarded us as liars (he says) and used to steal 
our property; but having narrowly watched our conduct, he 
was convinced of the truth of our religion and the falseness 
of his own.” 
After Kopaio became a Christian he divulged a story, which 
if it startled Mr. Geddie in its recital, filled him with a delightful 
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