Indolent Uniformitu of the Native Life. 119 



of a Divine Being, of tJie belief in a future state of existence 

 after death, served only to fill them with astonishment, but 

 they seemed ready enough to listen to such subjects. What 

 little they had heard upon these truths from missionaries and 

 ship captains, appeared however to have left them with very 

 confused notions. 



From all that came under our notice, the mode of life of 

 these islanders is singularly uniform and indolent, its most 

 important events consisting probably of the alterations 

 necessary by the interchange of the seasons. They know of 

 no other method of computing time than the change of the 

 moon and of the monsoons. At the besrinnins' of the wet 

 season or S. W. monsoon, and at the corresponding period 

 of the dry season or N. E. monsoon, there are certain festivals, 

 which somewhat resemble the '^ sowing feasts " and '' harvest 

 homes " of the American aboriginal stocks. They have how- 

 ever no appointed day of rest, corresponding to the sabbath_ 

 of the Christian ^^liiiich, nor indeed do they need such, see- 

 ing that in their mode of life every day is a holiday ! They 

 have no measm'e for time, nor indeed for anything else : not 

 a single native could give us any idea of his own age, nor 

 could count above 20.* Time has for them not the slightest 

 value: the watchword '^ T/w2e is money I ''^ which first given 

 by England, is at present resounding throughout the world, 

 falls voiceless and ineffectual on their insensible ears. Their 



* We did fall in with some few individuals on these islands who by dint of much 

 exer'iion could count as high as iOO. 



