omen in neat calico
gowns; but the men, nearly all of them, in woollen shirts, pilot-coats,
and trousers to match, and sea-boots! Whew! it nearly stifled me to look
at them. The temperature was about ninety degrees in the shade, with
hardly a breath of air stirring, yet those poor people, from some
mistaken notion of propriety, were sweating in torrents under that
Arctic rig. However they could worship, I do not know! At last the
meeting broke up. The men rushed out, tore off their coats, trousers,
and shirts, and flung themselves panting upon the grass, mother-naked,
except for a chaplet of cocoanut leaves, formed by threading them on a
vine-tendril, and hanging round the waist.

Squatting by the side of my "flem," whom I had recognized, I asked
him why ever he outraged all reason by putting on such clothes in
this boiling weather. He looked at me pityingly for a moment before he
replied, "You go chapella Belitani? No put bes' close on top?" "Yes,"
I said; "but in hot weather put on thin clothes; cold weather, put on
thick ones." "S'pose no got more?" he said, meaning, I presumed, more
than the one suit. "Well," I said, "more better stop 'way than look
like big fool, boil all away, same like duff in pot. You savvy duff?" He
smiled a wide comprehensive smile, but looked very solemn again,
saying directly, "You no go chapella; you no mishnally. No mishnally
[missionary=godly]; very bad. Me no close; no go chapella; vely bad.
Evelly tangata, evelly fafine, got close all same papalang [every man
and woman has clothes like a white man]; go chapella all day Sunday."
That this was no figure of speech I proved fully that day, for I declare
that the recess between any of the services never lasted more than an
hour. Meanwhile the worshippers did not return to their homes, for in
many cases they had journeyed twenty or thirty miles, but lay about
in the verdure, refreshing themselves with fruit, principally the
delightful green cocoa-nuts, which furnish meat and drink both--cool and
refreshing in the extreme, as well as nourishing.

We were all heartily welcome to whatever was going, but there was
a general air of restraint, a fear of breaking the Sabbath, which
prevented us from trespassing too much upon the hospitality of these
devout children of the sun. So we contented ourselves with strolling
through the beautiful glades and woods, lying down, whenever we felt
weary, under the shade of some spreading orange tree loaded with