322 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, 
and we have in several of the stations been highly 
favoured in the co-operation of valuable Sabbath- 
school teachers. In Huahine we found able assist¬ 
ants among them, especially the teachers in the 
girls’ school. They were not satisfied with attend¬ 
ing during the hours of school, and merely impart¬ 
ing the ordinary instruction, or hearing the usual 
recitals, but identified themselves with the ad¬ 
vancement of the children, and exercised an affec¬ 
tionate care over them during the intervals between 
the Sabbaths. 
By this means they gained the confidence and 
love of many of their pupils, and were resorted to 
for guidance and counsel in every engagement of 
importance or difficulty. Frequently one of these 
teachers, in order to greater quietude, and more 
unreserved converse with the children, would take 
her little class to some retired spot in one of the 
valleys behind the settlement, for the purpose of 
talking in the most affectionate manner to each 
individually, and then uniting with them in prayer 
to the Most High. I cannot imagine a more 
cheering and affecting scene, than must often have 
been presented, when a native Sabbath-school 
teacher has seated herself on the grass, under the 
shade of a spreading tree, or by the side of a wind¬ 
ing stream, and has there gathered her little class 
around her, for the purpose of unfolding, and im¬ 
pressing on their tender minds, the pure and sacred 
precepts of inspired truth ; or has, under these 
circumstances, engaged with them in prayer to 
that God, who is not confined to temples made 
with hands, and who regards the sincerity of those 
who call upon him, rather than the circumstances 
under which their petitions are offered. Their 
delightful labours in this department of instruction 
