412 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the mechanical parts of instruction (namely, learn¬ 
ing to read, spell, &c.) are not attended to; the 
time is wholly occupied in the religious improve¬ 
ment of the pupils, and is generally of a cateche¬ 
tical kind. 
Many of the parents attend as spectators at the 
Sabbath-schools, and it is not easy to conceive 
the delight they experience in beholding the 
improvement of their children, and in attending 
at an exercise often advantageous to their own 
minds. The greater part of the people, however, 
spend the middle of the day in their own dwell¬ 
ings. Formerly they were accustomed to sleep, 
but we believe this practice is by many discon¬ 
tinued. 
The public service in the evening commences, 
in most of the stations, about a quarter before 
four, and is performed 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 usually 
read a sermon in the English language in our 
own families. 
The attendance of the people is regular, and 
the attention seldom diverted. At first we per¬ 
ceived a great inclination to drowsiness, especially 
during the afternoon: at this we were not sur¬ 
prised, when we recollected that this was the man¬ 
ner in which they were accustomed to spend several 
hours every day, and that they were also unac¬ 
customed to fixedness of attention, or exercise of 
thought on a particular subject, for any length of 
time. This habit, however, has, we have reason 
to believe, very greatly diminished in all the islands, 
and more particularly where congregations regu¬ 
larly assemble. 
