POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
143 
In the afternoon they assemble in the schools^ and read 
the scriptures^ repeat hymns^ or portions of the cate¬ 
chism, and are questioned as to their recollection of 
the sermon of the forenoon. We have sometimes been 
surprised at the readiness with which the children have 
recited the text, divisions, and leading thoughts in a 
discourse, without having written it down at the time 
they heard it. Often it has been most cheering to see 
them thus employed 3 exhibiting all the native simpli¬ 
city of childhood, mingled with the indications of no 
careless exercise of the youthful mind on the important 
matters of religion. It is always delightful to watch 
the commencement and progress of mental improve¬ 
ment, and the early efforts of intellect ; but it was pecu¬ 
liarly so here. In the Sabbath-schools of the South 
Sea Islands, the mechanical parts of instruction (namely, 
learning to read and spell, &c.) are not attended to; the 
time is wholly occupied in the religious improvement 
of the pupils, and is generally of a catechetical kind. 
Many of the parents attend as spectators at the 
Sabbath-schools, and it is not easy to conceive the 
sacred delight they experienced in beholding the im¬ 
provement of their children, and attending at an exer¬ 
cise often advantageous to their own minds. The 
greater part of the people, however, spend the middle of 
the day in their own dwellings. Formerly they were 
accustomed to sleep, but we believe this practice is by 
many discontinued. 
The public service in the evening commences, in most 
of the stations, about a quarter before four, and is per¬ 
formed in the same manner as that in the forenoon. 
Meetings for reading the scriptures and prayer are held 
at some of the native houses in the evening, and we 
