Jewish Manners & Customs: Aia Katei I-Iutaia. London Missionary Society, publication in Gilbertese:

(PACIFIC ISLANDS)

Roñoroño Training Institution

Beru, Gilbert Islands

1915

Multiple pencilled inscriptions in Gilbertese.

Most exotic Judaic school textbook, which, aside from the title-page, entirely composed in the Gilbertese language. Produced by the London Missionary Society, a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 eager to spread Christianity “among heathen and other unenlightened nations.” Their influence was felt most strongly in the Pacific, where, despite early setbacks - (missionaries captured by pirates off Tahiti; eaten by cannibals in the New Hebrides) - they had much success. The present volume was for use in the Gilbert Islands, now Kiribati, an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean, discovered in 1788 by Captain Thomas Gilbert on his way back from Australia, after depositing the first load of convicts at Botany Bay. Only one recorded copy in the United States (University of Hawaii) and one copy located in the UK (School of Oriental and African Studies)