_Saturday, August 7th._--Most beautiful morning at Tasmouri. After Prayers and breakfast we all went for a picnic to a pretty place called “Ro[¨n]o nawo” meaning the sound of the surf, but why I don’t know. It is curious how the Mota word has got in here “nawo.” The word here for surf is “togovi” but nawo comes probably from Meralava. We all turned out for the holiday, men, women and children. The women did the cooking while the men and boys amused themselves in various ways, fishing, shooting, bathing or playing an animated game called “buka,” something between “prisoner’s base” and the old game of “tig.” Some of the young men amused themselves by shooting at a mark about thirty or forty yards distant. They made such good shooting at that distance, that I should be very sorry to give them a shot at me with a good well balanced poisoned arrow. At short distances of course they make very good work, and in their own skirmishes they don’t want to make long shots. I dare say by the side of a good English archer they would cut a sorry figure at a long shot, but for their own purposes they are excellent shots, and custom of course engenders skill. Their arrows are unfeathered, and I don’t expect will carry as true as the better made English arrow. Their bows are very strong and durable, being made curiously enough from a tree called the “Aru” (she oak). I spent my day pleasantly enough in reading and making pencil notes. Crabs and breadfruit was my luncheon, and a green cocoanut. The whole party assembled in the course of the afternoon, and the ovens were opened and their plentiful supply of food disgorged. I said grace and then there was a general fall to. The meal over we made preparation for a start homewards which we reached some time before sunset. On the way home the boys showed me in the water course a cocoanut tree which time had failed to rot or destroy, and the story according to native ideas was that this same tree was coexistant with the upheaval of the island, and had never changed, generation after generation handing on the fact of its existence and whereabouts. In the evening we had Prayers in the church and a nice hearty Service. Poor “Samuel” the head teacher is sick and has not been able to be with us to-day. I gave a short address at Evensong explanatory mostly of to-morrow’s programme. It is very warm here and one’s thoughts either cease to flow or one’s hand to write, anyhow I find a difficulty in inducing energy to write or my brain to cogitate. Except for the perpetual boom and surge of the restless ocean all is still and peaceful here at present.