These constituted the _leading_ committee, or, as it
was afterward termed, _Singing Committee_.
Singing now became a regular and interesting exercise of the school, and
the committee succeeded in managing the business themselves.
19. TABU.--An article was one day read in a school relating to the
"Tabu" of the Sandwich Islanders. Tabu is a term with them which
signifies consecrated--not to be touched--to be let alone--not to be
violated. Thus, according to their religious observances, a certain day
will be proclaimed _Tabu_; that is, one upon which there is to be no
work or no going out.
A few days after this article was read, the scholars observed one
morning a flower stuck up in a conspicuous place against the wall, with
the word TABU in large characters above it. This excited considerable
curiosity. The teacher informed them, in explanation, that the flower
was a very rare and beautiful specimen, brought by one of the scholars,
which he wished all to examine. "You would naturally feel a disposition
to examine it by the touch," said he, "but you will all see that, by the
time it was touched by sixty individuals, it would be likely to be
injured, if not destroyed. So I concluded to label it _Tabu_. And it has
occurred to me that this will be a convenient mode of apprising you
generally that any article must not be handled. You know we sometimes
have some apparatus exposed, which would be liable to injury from
disturbance, where there are so many persons to touch it.
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