132 ASTRONOMICAL KNOWLEDGE, AND 
trunks of trees with sharp stones, for want of 
better implements, fastened together with cocoa 
threads, and well caulked. The value they set 
on our axes and nails may therefore be easily 
imagined. 
Like allislanders, they are expert seamen, but 
especially dexterous in swimming and diving. 
They fetch any thing with ease from the bot- 
tom of the sea, even at very considerable depths. 
The upsetting of a boat causes them no uneasi- 
ness; 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 con- 
siderable distances, have made the observation 
of the stars, their only guides, absolutely neces- 
sary 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 
