384 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
except by mentioning the situation of the sun in 
the heavens. In the South Sea Islands they cer¬ 
tainly 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, bells were 
sent from England, but they were either too small, 
badly made, or carelessly used, and were fre¬ 
quently broken a few days after their arrival. 
Various were the expedients resorted to for sup¬ 
plying the deficiency thus occasioned, and I have 
often been amused at beholding the singular sub¬ 
stitutes employed. In the Sandwich Islands they 
sometimes used a bullock’s horn, or a long tin 
horn resembling that used by a mail-coach guard ; 
but, in general, a far more classic instrument, a 
beautiful 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 messenger; 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 
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 afterwards, perhaps, inviting the listening 
throng to hasten to the school, or to attend the 
place of worship. I procured a trumpet-shell 
