POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
141 
rant and barbarous idolaters. A second hymn is sung, 
another portion of scripture read, and prayer offered by 
another individual—when the service closes, and the 
assembly retires. 
Soon after eight o’clock the children repair to the Sab¬ 
bath-schools, those for the boys and girls being distinct. 
About four hundred usually attend in Fare: they are 
divided into classes, under native teachers. About a 
quarter before nine, the congregation begins to assemble, 
and at nine the morning service commences. I have 
often heard with pleasure, as I have passed the Sabbath- 
schools rather earlier perhaps than usual, the praises of 
the Saviour sung by between three and four hundred 
juvenile voices, who were thus concluding their morning 
exercise. The children are then conducted to the 
chapel, each class led by its respective teacher, the girls 
walking first, two abreast and hand-in-hand, clothed 
very generally in European dresses; wearing bonnets 
made with a fine species of grass, or the bark of a 
tree; each carrying in her hand a neat little basket, 
made with similar materials, and containing a catechism, 
hymn-book, and testament: the little boys following in 
the same order; more frequently, however, arrayed in 
the native costume, having a little finely-platted white 
mat, fringed at the edges, wound round their loins; 
another of the same kind, or a light scarf, dyed with 
glowing native colours, passed across their chest, and 
thrown loosely over their shoulders; their feet naked, 
and their hair often cut short, but sometimes flowing in 
ringlets over their open countenances; while their heads 
were covered with a neat little grass or straw hat, made 
by their mothers or their sisters. 
Before the service began, they were usually led to the 
