Islands far away; Fijian pictures with pen and brush . TONGANS, IN MOURNING, GOING TO CHURCH. threes to church: they are very religious, and everyone national mourning made the effect most Tongans are fond of dress, and the coarse old mats tiedon the top of their smart Sunday clothes, had a very grotesqueappearance. A maiden, stepping gracefully along with flowerscoquettislily stuck in her black hair, and a pretty pink orwhite silk dress, looked intensely funny having a hard stiffcommon dirty old mat plastered on the top, with great holesin it, and rags trolloping down
Islands far away; Fijian pictures with pen and brush . TONGANS, IN MOURNING, GOING TO CHURCH. threes to church: they are very religious, and everyone national mourning made the effect most Tongans are fond of dress, and the coarse old mats tiedon the top of their smart Sunday clothes, had a very grotesqueappearance. A maiden, stepping gracefully along with flowerscoquettislily stuck in her black hair, and a pretty pink orwhite silk dress, looked intensely funny having a hard stiffcommon dirty old mat plastered on the top, with great holesin it, and rags trolloping down and trailing in the dust, andthe man at her side, a young dandy perhaps, or her venerable-looking father, looked quite as peculiar, with this bunchy oldrag over his wliite silk shirt and bright fresh sulu. In churchthe whole congregation were thus attired, and I could not The King of the Friendly Isles. 237. ^kitij resist making a sketch on my white glove of a pretty girl witha fan, which I afterwards transferred to my sketch book. Themore ragged the mat the deeper the mourning ; and I saw somefascinating young girls slyly enlargingtheir holes with their fuigers duringthe sermon. The Tongans are much better look-ing than the Fijians. They are lighterin colour, their hair is soft and flowing,and their noses well-shaped, and notshort and flat and broad. They carr_ythemselves with great dignity, and thegirls have a ready smile, which showsa double row of lovely pearly teeth ;altogether they are very pleasing. The preacher had a charming face,and seemed to speak with great earnest-ness, but of course we understoodnothing. One word of a occurredvery often, and we afterwards learnedit was love. The singing was good,but not better than I have heard in Fiji,that there might have been a performance of the Kings ownchoir in the evening, and that I should have heard his render-ing of the Lords Praye
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookidislandsfaraw, bookyear1921
