110 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
tioning the situation of the sun in the heavens. In the 
South Sea Islands they certainly are not a needless 
article, and we found it impossible to induce the people 
to attend the schools, or assemble for public worship at 
any regular or appointed season, without some such 
method of calling them together. For several years 
there was, in all the islands, only one small hand-bell, 
not so large as that ordinarily used by the belman in 
an English market-town. 
As the number of stations increased, hells were sent 
from England, but they were either too small, badly 
made, or carelessly used, and were frequently broken a 
few days after their arrival. Various were the ex¬ 
pedients resorted to for supplying the deficiency thus 
occasioned, and I have often been amused at beholding 
the singular substitutes employed. In the Sandwich 
Islands they sometimes, I think, used a bullock’s horn; 
in others, a long tin horn resembling that used by a 
mail-coach guard; but, in general, a far more classic 
instrument, a eautiful marine shell, a species of turbo, 
or trumpet-shell, varying in size according to the power 
of the individual by whom it might be sounded. This, 
in fact, was the trumpet carried by the king’s messen¬ 
ger ; and I have often been delighted to see a tall and 
active man, or a lively and almost ruddy boy, with a 
light cloak or scarf thrown loosely over his shoulder, 
a wreath of flowers on his head, and a maro or girdle 
around his loins,—a shell, suspended by a braided cord, 
carelessly hanging on his arm—going round the village, 
stopping at intervals to sound his shell, and after¬ 
wards, perhaps, inviting the listening throng to hasten 
to the school, or to attend the place of worship. I 
procured a trumpet-shell actually used for these pur- 
