value they set on our axes and nails may therefore be
easily imagined.

Like all islanders, they are expert seamen, but especially dexterous in
swimming and diving. They fetch any thing with ease from the bottom of
the sea, even at very considerable depths. The upsetting of a boat
causes them no uneasiness; men and women swim round it till they succeed
in righting it again; and then, baling out the water, continue their
voyage with the utmost unconcern.

These voyages, sometimes extending to considerable distances, have made
the observation of the stars, their only guides, absolutely necessary to
them. They have thus attained some astronomical knowledge.

They distinguish the planets from the fixed stars, and call the former
by particular names. They divide the year into thirteen months of
twenty-nine days each, with the exception of one, which has less,
apparently for the purpose of reconciling this lunar with a solar year.
The day and night are each divided into six parts of two hours each,
which they measure exactly in the day by the position of the sun, and at
night by the stars. Medical men have considered them to possess much
skill in surgery, from the kindly healing of wounds which, by their
scars, have evidently been severe.

The Tahaitians are particularly distinguished by their superior
civilization from all other savages, among whom indeed they scarcely
deserve to be ranked. Their language sounds agreeably, and is not
difficult to learn. The vowels occur much more frequently than the
consonants, our c, g, k, s, and p, being entirely wanting. Cook and his
companions made considerable progress in it; and one of them says--"It
is rich in figurative modes of expression; and I am convinced that a
nearer acquaintance with it would place it on a level with the most
distinguished for boldness and power of imagery."

By means of this knowledge of their language, however imperfect, many
details concerning the religion of the Tahaitians were gained. The elder
Forster enters rather at large into the subject.

They believed in one supreme God, _Athua-rahai_, creator and governor
of the world, and of all other gods. They gave him a consort, who
however was not of the same nature, but of a material and very firm
substance, and therefore called _O-te-Papa_, that is to say, _Rock_.
From this pair proceeded a goddess of the moon, the gods of the stars,
the winds, and the sea, and the protecting deities of the several
i