POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
73 
of the language, while once a week, the whole met toge¬ 
ther for conversation and mutual aid in its acquisi¬ 
tion. The only means they had of obtaining it, was 
by observing carefully the native sounds of words, 
and writing down the characters by which they were 
expressed. In this they found great difficulty, from, 
what generally proves a source of perplexity to a learner 
in his first attempt at understanding a foreign tongue, 
viz. the rapidity with which the natives appeared to 
speak, and the want of divisions between the distinct 
words. The singular fact of most of their syllables con¬ 
sisting of a consonant and a vowel, and a vowel always 
terminating both their syllables and their words, in¬ 
creased their embarrassment in this respect. 
It was a circumstance highly advantageous to the Mis¬ 
sionaries, that the Tahitians were remarkably loquacious, 
often spending hours in conversation, however trivial its 
topics might be, patiently listening to inquiries, and 
anxious to make themselves intelligible. Although 
among themselves accustomed to hear critically, and 
to ridicule with great effect, any of their own country¬ 
men who should use a wrong word, mispronounce or 
place the accent erroneously on the one they used, yet 
they seldom laughed at the mistakes of the newly arrived 
residents. They endeavoured to correct them in the 
most friendly manner, and were evidently desirous that 
the foreigners should be able to understand their lan¬ 
guage, and convey their own ideas to them with dis¬ 
tinctness and perspicuity. 
When the Missionaries heard the natives maxe use of 
a word or sentence with which they were not already 
acquainted, they wrote it down, and repeated distinctly 
several times what they had written. If the natives 
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