A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xiii Part 2

[Footnote 18: The missionary account tells us, that the n.o.ble Women are the princ.i.p.al cloth-makers. Among these people, it seems, that it is far from being thought disgraceful, for the higher orders to engage in domestic concerns and useful manufactures, "nor is it the least disparagement for a chief to be found in the midst of his workmen labouring with his own hands; but it would be reckoned a great disgrace not to shew superior skill." Like the patriarchs of old, and the heroes of Homer, these chiefs a.s.sist in the preparation of victuals for the entertainment of their guests.--E.]

The colours with which they dye this cloth are princ.i.p.ally red and yellow. The red is exceedingly beautiful, and I may venture to say a brighter and more delicate colour than any we have in Europe; that which approaches nearest is our full scarlet, and the best imitation which Mr Banks's natural history painter could produce, was by a mixture of vermilion and carmine. The yellow is also a bright colour, but we have many as good.

The red colour is produced by the mixture of the juices of two vegetables, neither of which separately has the least tendency to that hue. One is a species of fig called here _Matte_, and the other the _Cordia Sebestina_, or _Etou_; of the fig the fruit is used, and of the _Cordia_ the leaves.

The fruit of the fig is about as big as a rounceval pea, or very small gooseberry; and each of them, upon breaking off the stalk very close, produces one drop of a milky liquor, resembling the juice of our figs, of which the tree is indeed a species. This liquor the women collect into a small quant.i.ty of cocoa-nut water: To prepare a gill of cocoa-nut water will require between three and four quarts of these little figs.

When a sufficient quant.i.ty is prepared, the leaves of the Etou are well wetted in it, and then laid upon a plantain leaf, where they are turned about till they become more and more flaccid, and then they are gently squeezed, gradually increasing the pressure, but so as not to break them; as the flaccidity increases, and they become spungy, they are supplied with more of the liquor; in about five minutes the colour begins to appear upon the veins of the leaves, and in about ten or a little more, they are perfectly saturated with it: They are then squeezed, with as much force as can be applied, and the liquor strained at the same time that it is expressed.

For this purpose, the boys prepare a large quant.i.ty of the Moo, by drawing it between their teeth, or two little sticks, till it is freed from the green bark and the branny substance that lies under it, and a thin web of the fibres only remains; in this the leaves of the Etou are enveloped, and through these the juice which they contain is strained as it is forced out. As the leaves are not succulent, little more juice is pressed out of them than they have imbibed: When they have been once emptied, they are filled again, and again pressed, till the quality which tinctures the liquor as it pa.s.ses through them is exhausted; they are then thrown away; but the moo, being deeply stained with the colour, is preserved, as a brush to lay the dye upon the cloth.

The expressed liquor is always received into small cups made of the plantain leaf, whether from a notion that it has any quality favourable to the colour, or from the facility with which it is procured, and the convenience of small vessels to distribute it among the artificers, I do not know.

Of the thin cloth they seldom dye more than the edges, but the thick cloth is coloured through the whole surface; the liquor is indeed used rather as a pigment than a dye, for a coat of it is laid upon one side only, with the fibres of the moo; and though I have seen of the thin cloth that has appeared to have been soaked in the liquor, the colour has not had the same richness and l.u.s.tre, as when it has been applied in the other manner.

Though the leaf of the etou is generally used in this process, and probably produces the finest colour, yet the juice of the figs will produce a red by a mixture with the species of tournefortia, which they call _taheinno_, the _pohuc_, the _eurhe_, or _convolvulus brasiliensis_, and a species of solanum, called _ebooa_; from the use of these different plants, or from different proportions of the materials, many varieties are observable in the colours of their cloth, some of which are conspicuously superior to others.

The beauty, however, of the best, is not permanent; but it is probable that some method might be found to fix it, if proper experiments were made, and perhaps to search for latent qualities, which may be brought out by the mixture of one vegetable juice with another, would not be an unprofitable employment: Our present most valuable dyes afford sufficient encouragement to the attempt; for, by the mere inspection of indigo, woad, dyer's weed, and most of the leaves which are used for the like purposes, the colours which they yield could never be discovered.

Of this Indian red I shall only add, that the women who have been employed in preparing or using it, carefully preserve the colour upon their fingers and nails, where it appears in its utmost beauty, as a great ornament.

The yellow is made of the bark of the root of the _morinda citrifolia_, called _nono_, by sc.r.a.ping and infusing it in water; after standing some time, the water is strained and used as a dye, the cloth being dipped into it. The morinda, of which this is a species, seems to be a good subject for examination with a view to dyeing. Brown, in his History of Jamaica, mentions three species of it, which he says are used to dye brown; and Rumphius says of the _bancuda angustifolia_, which is nearly allied to our nono, that it is used by the inhabitants of the East Indian islands as a fixing drug for red colours, with which it particularly agrees.

The inhabitants of this island also dye yellow with the fruit of the tamanu; but how the colour is extracted, we had no opportunity to discover. They have also a preparation with which they dye brown and black; but these colours are so indifferent, that the method of preparing them did not excite our curiosity.

Another considerable manufacture is matting of various kinds; some of which is finer, and better, in every respect, than any we have in Europe; the coa.r.s.er sort serves them to sleep upon, and the finer to wear in wet weather. With the fine, of which there are also two sorts, much pains is taken, especially with that made of the bark of the poerou, the _hibiscus tiliaceus_ of Linnaeus, some of which is as fine as a coa.r.s.e cloth: The other sort, which is still more beautiful, they call vanne; it is white, glossy, and s.h.i.+ning, and is made of the leaves of their _wharrou_, a species of the _panda.n.u.s_, of which we had no opportunity to see either the flowers or fruit: They have other matts, or, as they call them, _moeas_, to sit or to sleep upon, which are formed of a great variety of rushes and gra.s.s, and which they make, as they do every thing else that is plaited, with amazing facility and dispatch.

They are also very dexterous in making basket and wicker-work; their baskets are of a thousand different patterns, many of them exceedingly neat; and the making them is an art that every one practises, both men and women; they make occasional baskets and panniers of the cocoa-nut leaf in a few minutes, and the women who visited us early in a morning used to send, as soon as the sun was high, for a few of the leaves, of which they made little bonnets to shade their faces, at so small an expence of time and trouble, that, when the sun was again low in the evening, they used to throw them away. These bonnets, however, did not cover the head, but consisted only of a band that went round it, and a shade that projected from the forehead.

Of the bark of the poerou they make ropes and lines, from the thickness of an inch to the size of a small packthread: With these they make nets for fis.h.i.+ng. Of the fibres of the cocoa-nut they make thread for fastening together the several parts of their canoes and belts, either round or flat, twisted or plaited; and of the bark of the _erowa_, a kind of nettle which grows in the mountains, and is therefore rather scarce, they make the best fis.h.i.+ng lines in the world; with these they hold the strongest and most active fish, such as bonetas and albicores, which would snap our strongest silk lines in a minute, though they are twice as thick.

They make also a kind of seine, of a coa.r.s.e broad gra.s.s, the blades of which are like flags; these they twist and tie together in a loose manner, till the net, which is about as wide as a large sack, is from sixty to eighty fathoms long; this they haul in shoal smooth water, and its own weight keeps it so close to the ground, that scarcely a single fish can escape.

In every expedient, indeed, for taking fish, they are exceedingly ingenious; they make harpoons of cane, and point them with hard wood, which, in their hands, strike fish more effectually than those which are headed with iron can do in ours, setting aside the advantage of ours being fastened to a line, so that the fish is secured if the hook takes place, though it does not mortally wound him.

Of fish-hooks they have two sorts, admirably adapted in their construction as well to the purpose they are to answer, as to the materials of which they are made. One of these, which they call _witlee witlee_, is used for towing. The shank is made of mother-of-pearl, the most glossy that can be got; the inside, which is naturally the brightest, is put behind. To these hooks a tuft of white dog's or hog's hair is fixed, so as somewhat to resemble the tail of a fish; these implements, therefore, are both hook and bait, and are used with a rod of bamboo, and line of _erowa_. The fisher, to secure his success, watches the flight of the birds which constantly attend the bonetas when they swim in shoals, by which he directs his canoe, and when he has the advantage of these guides, he seldom returns without a prize.

The other kind of hook is also made of mother-of-pearl, or some other hard sh.e.l.l: They cannot make them bearded like our hooks; but, to effect the same purpose, they make the point turn inwards. These are made of all sizes, and used to catch various kinds of fish with great success.

The manner of making them is very simple, and every fisherman is his own artificer: The sh.e.l.l is first cut into square pieces by the edge of another sh.e.l.l, and wrought into a form corresponding with the outline of the hook, by pieces of coral, which are sufficiently rough to perform the office of a file; a hole is then bored in the middle; the drill being no other than the first stone they pick up that has a sharp corner; this they fix into the end of a piece of bamboo, and turn it between the hands like a chocolate-mill; when the sh.e.l.l is perforated, and the hole sufficiently wide, a small file of coral is introduced, by the application of which the hook is in a short time completed, few costing the artificer more time than a quarter of an hour.

Of their masonry, carving, and architecture, the reader has already formed some idea from the account that has been given of the morais, or repositories of the dead: The other most important article of building and carving is their boats; and, perhaps, to fabricate one of their princ.i.p.al vessels with their tools, is as great a work as to build a British man-of-war with ours.

They have an adze of stone; a chissel, or gouge, of bone, generally that of a man's arm between the wrist and elbow; a rasp of coral; and the skin of a sting-ray, with coral sand, as a file or polisher.

This is a complete catalogue of their tools, and with these they build houses, construct canoes, hew stone, and fell, cleave, carve, and polish timber.

The stone which makes the blade of their adzes is a kind of basaltes, of a blackish or grey colour, not very hard, but of considerable toughness: They are formed of different sizes; some, that are intended for felling, weigh from six to eight pounds; others, that are used for carving, not more than so many ounces; but it is necessary to sharpen both almost every minute; for which purpose, a stone and a cocoa-nut sh.e.l.l full of water are always at hand.

Their greatest exploit, to which these tools are less equal than to any other, is felling a tree: This requires many hands, and the constant labour of several days. When it is down, they split it, with the grain, into planks from three to four inches thick, the whole length and breadth of the tree, many of which are eight feet in the girt, and forty to the branches, and nearly of the same thickness throughout. The tree generally used, is, in their language, called _avie_, the stem of which is tall and straight; though some of the smaller boats are made of the bread-fruit tree, which is a light spongy wood, and easily wrought. They smooth the plank very expeditiously and dexterously with their adzes, and can take off a thin coat from a whole plank without missing a stroke. As they have not the art of warping a plank, every part of the canoe, whether hollow or flat, is shaped by hand.[19]

[Footnote 19: One likes to see the exercise of human ingenuity even on trifles. It flatters the consciousness of one's own powers, and affords, too, the ground-work of a comparison nowise disadvantageous to what one believes of his own capabilities. Man has been defined by a certain writer, an animal that uses instruments for the accomplishment of his purposes. But the definition is faulty in one important point; it does not exclude some beings which are not of the species. It is perhaps impossible to furnish an adequate definition of his nature within the compa.s.s of a single logical proposition. And what matter? Every man in his senses knows what man is, and can hardly ever be necessitated to clothe his conception of him, in language metaphysically unexceptionable. But if any trait be more characteristic than another, that of invention may safely be a.s.serted to have the pre-eminence. Man, in effect, evinces the superiority of his nature over all other animals, by a faculty which he seems exclusively to enjoy, in common with his Maker, of creating systems, plans, and objects, by the exercise of an understanding and will adapted to certain ends fore-seen and predetermined. No tribes of mankind are totally dest.i.tute of this intellectual agency, which is proof, that none are without the merciful visitations of that great beneficent Being from whom the universe has its existence. A canoe, a house, a basket, indicates mind. Mind, by the very const.i.tution of our nature, indicates power and authority. Reason, indeed, may dispute the necessity or the propriety of such connections in our thoughts and feelings, but reason cannot possibly set them aside, or eradicate them from the human breast, though aided by all that dislike and fear of the solemn truth which the conviction of guilt or demerit never fails to produce. These Otaheitans, then, are evidences to themselves of the existence of a power and wisdom superior to their own, to which they are consciously accountable; and they are without excuse, if, knowing this, they do not wors.h.i.+p G.o.d as they ought. It may amuse, and perhaps instruct the reader, which is the reason for introducing this note, to enquire how far the inventions of the Otaheitans, as of all other people, made any way necessary or desirable by the circ.u.mstance of their climate and situation, influence them in their notions on the subject of their national religions. He will find that amongst them, as amongst others, the popular religion is founded, not on the exercise of reason contemplating the works of nature and the dispensations of Providence, but on principles intimately connected with man's physical wants, and modified by the peculiarities of ingenuity, which the artificial supply of those wants occasions; and perhaps he will make out one remarkable conclusion from the survey of them compared with others--that where these arts of ingenuity are frequent, and at the same time applied to very perishable subjects, there the objects of wors.h.i.+p and the kind of religious service, are of a refined nature, allowing little or nothing of the grossness of _material_ idolatry; and that, on the contrary, when they are few, but at the same time exercised on very durable substances, then the greatest tendency exists to the wors.h.i.+p of the mere works of man's hands. Sagacious and clever people, in other words, have cunningly devised fables for their creeds; the clumsy-headed and the idle fall down before stocks and stones, as if there were no such things as memory or imagination or understanding in the world. It follows, that to extirpate gross idolatry, you must multiply inventions, and encourage ingenuity--the first operation, it may be confidently said, to which missionaries among the heathens should direct their exertions. It is no less certain, that to destroy spiritual idolatry, nothing short of the mighty power of G.o.d himself, implanting a new principle allied to his own nature, is available. When missionaries obtain the management and dispensation of this new principle, then, and only then, they will succeed in making men _wors.h.i.+ppers in spirit and in truth_. But the propriety of their labours is to be evinced on other grounds, than the success attending them.--E.]

The canoes, or boats, which are used by the inhabitants of this and the neighbouring islands, may be divided into two general cla.s.ses; one of which they call _Ivahahs_, the other _Pahies_.

The Ivahah is used for short excursions to sea, and is wall-sided and flat-bottomed; the Pahie for longer voyages, and is bow-sided and sharp-bottomed. The Ivahahs are all of the same figure, but of different sizes, and used for different purposes: Their length is from seventy-two feet to ten, but the breadth is by no means in proportion; for those of ten feet are about a foot wide, and those of more than seventy are scarcely two. There is the fighting Ivahah; the fis.h.i.+ng Ivahah, and the travelling Ivahah; for some of these go from one island to another. The fighting Ivahah is by far the longest, and the head and stern are considerably raised above the body, in a semicircular form; particularly the stern, which is sometimes seventeen or eighteen feet high, though the boat itself is scarcely three. These never go to sea single; but are fastened together, side by side, at the distance of about three feet, by strong poles of wood, which are laid across them and lashed to the gunwales. Upon these, in the fore-part, a stage or platform is raised, about ten or twelve feet long, and somewhat wider than the boats, which is supported by pillars about six feet high: Upon this stage stand the fighting men, whose missile weapons are slings and spears; for, among other singularities in the manners of these people, their bows and arrows are used only for diversion, as we throw quoits: Below these stages sit the rowers, who receive from them those that are wounded, and furnish fresh men to ascend in their room. Some of these have a platform of bamboos or other light wood, through their whole length, and considerably broader, by means of which they will carry a great number of men; but we saw only one fitted in this manner.

The fis.h.i.+ng Ivahahs vary in length from about forty feet to the smallest size, which is about ten; all that are of the length of twenty-five feet and upwards, of whatever sort, occasionally carry sail. The travelling Ivahah is always double, and furnished with a small neat house about five or six feet broad, and six or seven feet long, which is fastened upon the fore-part for the convenience of the princ.i.p.al people, who sit in them by day, and sleep in them at night. The fis.h.i.+ng Ivahahs are sometimes joined together, and have a house on board; but this is not common.

Those which are shorter than five-and-twenty feet, seldom or never carry sail; and, though the stern rises about four or five feet, have a flat head, and a board that projects forward about four feet.

The Pahie is also of different sizes, from sixty to thirty feet long; but, like the Ivahah, is very narrow. One that I measured was fifty-one feet long, and only one foot and a half wide at the top. In the widest part, it was about three feet; and this is the general proportion. It does not, however, widen by a gradual swell; but the sides being straight, and parallel, for a little way below the gunwale, it swells abruptly, and draws to a ridge at the bottom; so that a transverse section of it has somewhat the appearance of the mark upon cards called a Spade, the whole being much wider in proportion to its length. These, like the largest Ivahahs, are used for fighting; but princ.i.p.ally for long voyages. The fighting Pahie, which is the largest, is fitted with the stage or platform, which is proportionably larger than those of the Ivahah, as their form enables them to sustain a much greater weight.

Those that are used for sailing are generally double; and the middle size are said to be the best sea-boats. They are sometimes out a month together, going from island to island; and sometimes, as we were credibly informed, they are a fortnight or twenty days at sea, and could keep it longer if they had more stowage for provisions, and conveniences to hold fresh water.

When any of these boats carry sail single, they make use of a log of wood which is fastened to the end of two poles that lie cross the vessel, and project from six to ten feet, according to the size of the vessel, beyond its side, somewhat like what is used by the flying proa of the Ladrone Islands, and called in the account of Lord Anson's Voyage, an Outrigger. To this outrigger the shrouds are fastened, and it is essentially necessary in tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the boat when it blows fresh.[20]

[Footnote 20: For a short but sufficient notice of what is called an Outrigger, see our account of Anson's Voyage, in vol. xi. p. 464. The reader will find a drawing representing it in the translation of the Account of Bougainville's Voyage.--E.]

Some of them have one mast, and some two; they are made of a single stick, and when the length of the canoe is thirty feet, that of the mast is somewhat less than five-and-twenty; it is fixed to a frame that is above the canoe, and receives a sail of matting about one-third longer than itself: The sail is pointed at the top, square at the bottom, and curved at the side; somewhat resembling what we call a shoulder-of-mutton sail, and used for boats belonging to men-of-war: It is placed in a frame of wood, which surrounds it on every side, and has no contrivance either for reefing or furling; so that, if either should become necessary, it must be cut away, which, however, in these equal climates, can seldom happen. At the top of the mast are fastened ornaments of feathers, which are placed inclining obliquely forwards.

The oars or paddles that are used with these boats, have a long handle and a flat blade, not unlike a baker's peel. Of these every person in the boat has one, except those that sit under the awning; and they push her forward with them at a good rate. These boats, however, admit so much water at the seams, that one person at least is continually employed in throwing it out. The only thing in which, they excel is landing, and putting off from the sh.o.r.e in a surf: By their great length and high sterns they land dry, when our boats could scarcely land at all; and have the same advantages in putting off by the height of the head. The Ivahahs are the only boats that are used by the inhabitants of Otaheite; but we saw several Pahies that came from other islands. Of one of these I shall give the exact dimensions from a careful admeasurement, and then particularly describe the manner in which they are built.

Feet. Inches.

Extreme length from stem to stern, not reckoning the bending up of either 51 0 Breadth in the clear of the top forward 1 3 Breadth in the mids.h.i.+ps 1 6 Breadth aft 1 3 In the bilge forward 2 8 In the mids.h.i.+ps 2 11 Aft 2 9 Depth in the mids.h.i.+ps 8 4 Height from the ground on which she stood 3 6 Height of her head from the ground, without the figure 4 4 Height of the figure 0 11 Height of the stern from the ground 8 9 Height of the figure 2 0

The first stage, or keel, is made of a tree hollowed out like a trough; for which the longest trees are chosen that can be got, so that there are never more than three in the whole length: The next stage is formed of straight plank, about four feet long, fifteen inches broad, and two inches thick: The third stage, is, like the bottom, made of trunks, hollowed into its bilging form; the last is also cut out of trunks, so that the moulding is of one piece with the upright. To form these parts separately, without saw, plane, chissel, or any other iron tool, may well be thought no easy task; but the great difficulty is to join them together.

When all the parts are prepared, the keel is laid upon blocks, and the planks being supported by stanchions, are sewed or clamped together with strong thongs of plaiting, which are pa.s.sed several times through holes that are bored with a gouge or auger of bone, that has been described already; and the nicety with which this is done, may be inferred from their being sufficiently water-tight for use without caulking. As the platting soon rots in the water, it is renewed at least once a-year; in order to which, the vessel is taken entirely to pieces. The head and stern are rude with respect to the design; but very neatly finished, and polished to the highest degree.

These Pahies are kept with great care, in a kind of house built on purpose for their reception; the houses are formed of poles set upright in the ground, the tops of which are drawn towards each other, and fastened together with their strongest cord, so as to form a kind of Gothic arch, which is completely thatched quite to the ground, being open only at the ends; they are sometimes fifty or sixty paces long.

As connected with the navigation of these people, I shall mention their wonderful sagacity in foretelling the weather, at least the quarter from which the wind shall blow at a future time; they have several ways of doing this, of which however I know but one. "They say, that the Milky-way, is always curved laterally; but sometimes, in one direction, and sometimes in another: And that this curvature is the effect of its being already acted upon by the wind, and its hollow part therefore towards it; so that, if the same curvature continues a night, a corresponding wind certainly blows the next day. Of their rules, I shall not pretend to judge; but I know that, by whatever means, they can predict the weather, at least the wind, with much greater certainty than we can. [21]

[Footnote 21: It is injudicious and unphilosophical to slight the observations of the vulgar on subjects level to their capacities and habits of thought. But, on the other hand, it is almost always necessary to distrust their reasonings and theories about them. This is one of the cases in which both cautions are to be practised. The common people in all countries are more accustomed to make remarks upon the weather, than those who are given to literary or scientific pursuits. It would be worth some person's while to make a collection of their observations on the subject. For a man of science, learning, and ingenuity, no one perhaps has paid more attention to the signs of the weather than Mr Jones,--_See his Physiological Disquisitions, published at London_ 1781.--E.]

In their longer voyages, they steer by the sun in the day, and in the night by the stars; all of which they distinguish separately by names, and know in what part of the heavens they will appear in any of the months during which they are visible in their horizon; they also know the time of their annual appearing and disappearing with more precision than will easily be believed by an European astronomer.[22]

[Footnote 22: Mr Bryan Edwards has been at pains to compare together the Otaheitans and the original inhabitants of some of the West India islands. On the whole, he gives the preference to the latter. But he is far indeed from being unjust to the former, in the description he has given of them. A few quotations may be made from his work, to the edification of the reader, and it is conceived, that though some of them seem to respect subjects discussed in the next chapter, this is the best place for giving them. "Having mentioned the natives of the South-Sea Islands, I cannot but advert to the wonderful similarity observable, in many respects, between our ill-fated West Indians and that placid people. The same frank and affectionate temper, the same cheerful simplicity, gentleness, and candour;--a behaviour, devoid of meanness and treachery, of cruelty and revenge, are apparent in the character of both; and although placed at so great a distance from each other, and divided by the intervention of the American continent, we may trace a resemblance even in many of their customs and inst.i.tutions; their national songs and dances, their domestic economy, their system of government, and their funeral ceremonies. I pretend not, however, to affirm that this resemblance is so exact as to create the presumption of common origin. The affinity perceivable in the dispositions and virtues of these widely-separated tribes, arose probably from a similarity in their circ.u.mstances and situation, operating on the general principles of human nature. Placed alike in a happy medium; between savage life, properly so called, and the refinements of polished society, they are found equally exempt from the sordid corporeal distresses and sanguinary pa.s.sions of the former state, and from the artificial necessities, the restraints, and solicitudes of the latter."--"In those inventions and arts, which, varying the enjoyments, add considerably to the value of life, I believe the Otaheitans were in general somewhat behind our islanders; in agriculture they were particularly so. The great support of the inferior territories of the South-sea consists of the bread-fruit and the plantain; both which flourish there spontaneously; and although the inhabitants have likewise plantations of yams, and other excellent roots, yet the cultivation of none of them appears to be as extensive as was that of the maize in the West Indies, or to display equal skill with the preparation of the Ca.s.savi-bread from the maniock. The West Indians, notwithstanding that they possessed almost every variety of vegetable nature which grew in the countries I have mentioned, the bread-fruit excepted, raised also both the maize and the maniock in great abundance; and they had acquired the skill of watering their lands from distant rivers, in time of drought. It may likewise be observed, that although the Otaheitans possess the shrub which produces cotton, they neither improve it by culture, nor have the knowledge of converting its wool into cloth, but content themselves with a far meaner production as a subst.i.tute. Our islanders had not only the skill of making excellent cloth from their cotton, but they practised also the arts of dying it, with a variety of colours, some of them of the utmost brilliancy and beauty. In the science of s.h.i.+pbuilding (if the construction of such vessels as either people used may be distinguished with that appellation) the superiority is on the side of the Otaheitans; yet the _piraguas_ of the West Indians were fully sufficient for the navigation they were employed in, and indeed were by no means contemptible sea-boats."--"On the other hand, our islanders far surpa.s.sed the people of Otaheite, in the elegance and variety of their domestic utensils and furniture; their earthen-ware, curiously woven beds, and implements of husbandry." For the particulars of the comparison here entered into, the reader who is interested will have recourse to the work itself, in which, besides, he will find several circ.u.mstances related of another people, the Charaibes, which much resemble what he has now read in the account of the Otaheitans. This note is already too large to admit of their being specified in any satisfactory manner, and it was thought improper to be continually calling off the attention of the reader, from the text, to smaller notes at the individual instances.--E.]

SECTION XIX.

_Of the Division of Time in Otaheile; Numeration, Computation of Distance, Language, Diseases, Disposal of the Dead, Religion, War, Weapons, and Government; with some general Observations for the Use of future Navigators_.

We were not able to acquire a perfect idea of their method of dividing time; but observed, that in speaking of it, either past or to come, they never used any term but _Malama_, which signifies Moon. Of these moons they count thirteen, and then begin again; which is a demonstration that they have a notion of the solar year: But how they compute their months, so that thirteen of them shall be commensurate with the year, we could not discover; for they say that each month has twenty-nine days, including one in which the moon is not visible. They have names for them separately, and have frequently told us the fruits that would be in season, and the weather that would prevail, in each of them; and they have indeed a name for them collectively, though they use it only when they speak of the mysteries of their religion.

Every day is subdivided into twelve parts, each of two hours, of which six belong to the day, and six to the night. At these divisions they guess pretty nearly by the height of the sun while he is above the horizon; but there are few of them that can guess at them, when he is below it, by the stars.[23]

[Footnote 23: It is distinctly proved by President Goguet, that the course of the moon, and her various appearances, served mankind in general, in the first ages, for the measurement of time. What is here said of the Otaheitans confirms his observations. We are told too, in another work, that the natives of the Pellew Islands reckon their time by months, and not by years; in which, however, we see they are inferior to the former as to extent of science. Now there are two sorts of lunar month, called in the language of astronomers, synodical and periodical; the first is the time from new moon to new moon, consisting of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 min. 3 seconds, which is the month most commonly used by the early observers; the second, consisting of 27 days, 7 hours, 43 min.

5 seconds, is that portion of time which the moon takes to finish her course round the earth. Neither of these multiplied by 13 will make up the solar year exactly. In what manner then the Otaheitans reckon, it is not easy to comprehend. The probability is, that they have no notion of the periodical month.--E.]