at-coat, put
on above her Native grass skirts, and sweeping down to her heels,
buttoned tight. Over this she had hung on a vest, and above that again,
most amazing of all, she had superinduced a pair of men's trousers,
planting the body of them on her neck and shoulders, and leaving her
head and face looking out from between the legs--a leg from either side
streaming over her bosom arid dangling down absurdly in front! Fastened
to the one shoulder also there was a red shirt, and to the other a
striped shirt, waving about her like wings as she sailed along. Around
her head a red shirt had been twisted like a turban, and her notions of
art demanded that a sleeve thereof should hang aloft over each of her
ears! She seemed to be a moving monster loaded with a mass of rags. The
day was excessively hot, and the perspiration poured over her face in
streams. She, too, sat as near to me as she could get on the women's
side of the Church. Nelwang looked at me and then at her, smiling
quietly, as if to say, "You never saw, in all your white world, a bride
so grandly dressed!"

I little thought what I was bringing on myself when I urged them to come
to Church. The sight of that poor creature sweltering before me
constrained me for once to make the service very short--perhaps the
shortest I ever conducted in all my life! The day ended in peace. The
two souls were extremely happy; and I praised God that what might have
been a scene of bloodshed had closed thus, even though it were in a kind
of wild grotesquerie!

CHAPTER LXV.
THE CHRIST-SPIRIT AT WORK.

THE progress of God's work was most conspicuous in, relation to wars and
revenges among the Natives. The two high Chiefs, Namakei and Naswai,
frequently declared, "We are the men of Christ now. We must not fight.
We must put down murders and crimes among our people."

Two young fools, returning from Tanna with muskets, attempted twice to
shoot a man in sheer wantonness and display of malice. The Islanders
met, and informed them that if man or woman was injured by them, the
other men would load their muskets and shoot them dead in general
council. This was a mighty step towards public order, and I greatly
rejoiced before the Lord. His Spirit, like leaven, was at work!

My constant custom was, in order to prevent war, to run right in between
the contending parties. My faith enabled me to grasp and realize the
promise, "Lo, I am with you always." In Jesus I felt invulnerable an