Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/198

174 meaning of the original hymn was preserved with the air no one of the listeners was able to say, and there was no interpreter present to tell them.



As soon as service was over the strangers were surrounded by a group of natives, and there was an attempt at conversation; but as our friends were totally unlearned in Feejeean, and the vocabulary of the natives was principally confined to the word "shillin'," there was not much interchange of thought. Nearly every Feejeean understands "shillin'" well enough to pronounce it. He has a clear idea that it means money, and it is in this sense that it is used. Ask a native what he will sell his house for, and he will answer "shillin';" ask him the price of a cocoanut, and the reply is the same. In the former case he would of course decline the offer if actually made, and in the latter he would bring you twenty or fifty cocoanuts for the figure named.

In strolling around as the congregation dispersed Frank and Fred became separated from the rest of the party, but without any misgivings as to their safety or loss of way, as they were accompanied by several natives, one of whom invited the youths to his house. This was