was no common calf, but one which had evidently been a household pet for Years, and YEARS, and YEARS!

The Samoans are natural orators, and love to illustrate their subject with facts and comparisons from every source within their ken. So the preacher who would rivet the attention of his hearers needed to have studied his subject well. But at that time he had no books to help him, no commentaries to refer to, only a translation of three Gospels and a few Scripture lessons; and many a teacher felt, what one expressed, namely, that he was like a man attempting to cut down a forest with a blunt axe; or like a foolish man, always hammering, but never hitting the nail on the head.

The necessity of an educational institution was therefore apparent, and the chiefs were so favourably disposed to the scheme, that they offered to clear out of a whole village and make it over to the mission. It was, however, considered preferable to buy a piece of land on the coast, in a place quite apart from all other settlements; so Malua was selected, and fifty acres of land purchased in due form. This land was reclaimed from the bush by the students themselves, who raise yams, taro, and bananas in abundance, and have also planted several thousand bread-fruit trees, cocoa-palms, and other fruit-bearing trees; so that this noble. institution is almost, if not altogether, self-supporting.

From its commencement to the present day, fully two thousand teachers and native ministers have been here trained, including a considerable number of men from far-distant Papuan Isles-from the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Tokelau, and Savage Isles -all speaking different tongues, but here meeting together to learn what they can, and then carry the truth to their own distant isles. Oh how these perplexed teachers must long for a new Pentecostal gift, to enable them to address these men, each in his own language!

It would be difficult to imagine a healthier, happier life, than that of these students. At the first glimmer of the lovely tropical dawn, the college bell rings to mark the hour for household prayer. (There is probably not a house in Samoa where the family do not assemble daily for morning and evening prayer.) Then all the

A COLLEGE LIFE IN SAMOA.

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students go out, either to work in the gardens, or to fish in the calm lagoon. At eight the bell rings again to warn them that it is time to bathe and breakfast, to be ready for their class at nine. Classes and lectures continue till four, when they are again free to go fishing, gardening, carpentering, or whatever they prefer. At sunset each family meets for evening prayer; then the men study by themselves till half-past nine, when the curfew bell (true couvre-feu) warns them to put out their lights.

On Saturday evening there is a prayer-meeting in the institution. chapel, when the students take it in turn to deliver a short address.

Sunday is of course observed very strictly. The day begins with a prayer-meeting at six. At morning and afternoon service all the neighbouring villagers assemble, and the intervening and later hours are filled up with Sunday-school for children and Bibleclasses for adults. A simple service, with a good deal of singing, ends the day. The Holy Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month.

The institution rules are few and simple; but for any infringement of them the penalty is a fine, which goes towards the expense of lights.

The course of instruction includes arithmetic, geography, natural philosophy, writing, composition, Scripture history, and systematic and practical theology. For lack of books, Dr Turner and his fellow-tutor found it necessary, day by day, to write out copious notes of their lectures, and give them to all the young men to copy. Consequently each, on leaving the college, at the end of a four years' course, carried with him a large store of papers for reference.

Thanks to the diligent labours of Dr Turner and his colleagues (who during many years devoted about five hours daily to preparing translations for publication), the libraries of Samoa now contain Scripture narratives and commentaries on the Old Testament, -commentaries on the Epistles and Gospels, Elements of Astronomy, Elements of Natural Philosophy, and various other works. We were told various examples of the acute and pithy remarks

G

of the native teachers, and of the excellent illustrations they sometimes make use of. Thus a hollow professor is likened to the castoff shell of a lobster, so perfect in every claw and feeler, even to the transparent covering of the eyes, that the fisher, peering into the clear pools on the reef, mistakes it for a true and excellent prize, and only learns his error as he grasps the worthless shell.

A strange illustration of "cutting off a right hand or a right foot, or plucking out a right eye, that offend," was given by a teacher at Tutuila, who told how often he had watched the mali'o, or land-crab, which by day burrows deep in the soil, but by night hurries down to the sea to feed and drink. It is a wondrous cleanly creature; and the Samoans declare that if on its seaward way, as it presses through the tall grass, it should chance to come in contact with any filth, which adheres to its legs, it will deliberately wrench them off, and thus, self-mutilated, hobbles back to its hole, there to hide till its legs grow again. It is positively affirmed that this most extraordinary crab has been known deliberately to wrench off its eight legs in succession, and then drag itself home with the greatest difficulty by means of its nippers. I must confess I think this crab would have shown more common-sense had he gone to the sea or the nearest stream and washed his dirty legs. But you must allow that the illustration was an apt one.

Those who on hearing good words hearken, and for a season dwell on them in their hearts, but after a while return to their careless ways, are compared to the sensitive plant, which when touched closes its leaves and droops to the very earth, but anon rises up again as brave as ever. A backslider is compared to a certain fish which comes from the ocean to feed on the reef, and which for a day or two continues silvery white, but after a while becomes dark and unwholesome.

A little sin is as a hole in a fisherman's basket, through which, one by one, fall the fish for which he has toiled so eagerly. First he loses all his little fish, and gradually, as the hole enlarges, the large fish also escape, and at last he reaches his journey's end with an empty basket.

The taint of old sins, clinging to one who would fain put away

THE DANGER OF LITTLE SINS.

99

evil things, is compared to a strongly scented oil, with which a bottle-gourd has once been filled. Many and many a time must that gourd be washed ere it will lose the scent, and be fit to hold water for drinking.1

Still more striking is the illustration of a stately bread-fruit tree, fair to look upon, with large glossy leaves and abundant fruit, —a tree which in the natural course of healthy life will, when full grown, send up from its roots strong shoots, which yield their first crop in the second or third year, so that ere long the patriarchal tree is the centre of a leafy fruit-bearing grove. But there is an insignificant-looking parasitic fungus-merely a black spot like the smut that comes on wheat-which is fatal to this fair tree. Once it can establish itself, it spreads like a canker. The rich green leaves turn yellow, and the disease is soon carried from tree to tree, till the whole grove is sickly and blighted. It brings no fruit to perfection, and ere long the trees are dead. Only one antidote is known. It is said that there grows in the depths of the forest a glorious lily, and that if some of its bulbs are brought and planted among the roots of the sickly trees, they will recover. And so, when the deadly rust of sin has cankered the heart of man, one only remedy can avail, influence of HIM who is called the true Lily.

the life-giving

Again, another teacher illustrates the necessity of rooting out all bad habits, no matter how trifling they may seem, by the example of the wild taro, which sends rootlets creeping in every direction, so that though the main root may be dug up, suckers innumerable remain, which need only time to bring them to sturdy life.

Another parable is furnished by the sugar-cane, which grows tall and beautiful to the eye, but unless due care is taken to clear away the decayed leaves from around its roots, worms gather there, and pierce the cane, and rapidly multiplying within, fatten and 1 The Rev. W. Wyatt Gill has recorded a multitude of most interesting examples of such parables from nature. Moreover, happily for all lovers of such lore, he has, during his mission career in the Hervey Isles, found time to preserve many delightful "Myths and Songs from the South Pacific." It is much to be wished that the same could be done for other groups.

Crinum asiaticum.

flourish, so that when the husbandman gathers his cane, he finds its precious juice all gone, and in its place a multitude of loathEven such, said the preacher, is the growth of little

some worms.

sins.

The soul that seeks to soar heavenward is likened to the piraki —a small bird, which, like the skylark, seems to lose itself in the light. On the other hand, the snow-white tern, which, beneath its lovely white plumage, has a dull black skin, is a meet symbol of the hypocrite, whose fair feathers shall one day be plucked off, to reveal the false professor.

Some of the questions propounded by the students are equally noteworthy, and few indeed suggest that confused wool-gathering of which every school examiner in Britain can quote such strange examples. The question asked by one young man was, "What is meant by Satan falling from heaven?" And I could not help thinking of the rash Sunday-school teacher who asked her class why, in Jacob's dream, the angels were seen descending by a ladder. To which replied a sharp child, "Please, 'twas because the angels were puking, and they couldna flee!" She had charge of her mother's poultry, which just then were moulting, so the comparison was forcible.

Hitherto the students do not appear to have been troubled with any speculative difficulties regarding the Mosaic account of Creation, which, in Samoa, has reversed the European order, and has superseded the "Darwinian" theory. According to the legend of the isles, "In the beginning" the great god Tangaloa sent his daughter, in the form of a bird, to visit the great waters, which then covered the face of the earth. She found a rock rising above the surface, and there rested a while ere returning to the heavens. From time to time she revisited the rock, and carried thither some earth and then a creeping plant. After a while she returned, and her plant had covered the earth, which gradually enlarged, as the waters dried up. Then the plant withered and decayed, and as it turned into slimy nastiness, a multitude of worms appeared, and they grew fat and flourished, and in due course of time men and women were evolved. So, you see, the Samoans had traced the