CONCLUSION 239 



down among the coral reefs and hatching into a 

 new generation. ' Year after year these creatures 

 appear according to lunar time. And yet in the 

 long-run they keep solar time. They keep two 

 cycles, one of three and one of twenty-nine years. 

 In the three-year cycle there are two intervals of 

 twelve lunations and one of thirteen lunations. 

 These thirty -seven lunations bring lunar time 

 somewhat near to solar time. But in twenty-nine 

 years there is enough difference to require the 

 addition of another lunation; the twenty -ninth 

 year is therefore one of thirteen instead of twelve 

 lunations. In this way they do not change their 

 season in an entire century. So unfailing is their 

 appearance that in Samoa they have given their 

 name to the spring season, which is called " the 

 time of the palolo." ' 



Instead of the highest, man is in some respects 

 the lowest, of the animal kingdom. Man is the 

 most unchaste, the most drunken, the most selfish 

 and conceited, the most miserly, the most hypo- 

 critical, and the most bloodthirsty of terrestrial 

 creatures. Almost no animals, except man, kill 

 for the mere sake of killing. For one being to 

 take the life of another for purposes of selfish 

 utility is bad enough. But the indiscriminate 

 massacre of defenceless innocents by armed and 

 organised packs, just for pastime, is beyond charac- 

 terisation. The human species is the only species 

 of animals that plunges to such depths of atrocity. 

 Even vipers and hyenas do not exterminate for 

 recreation. No animal, except man, habitually 



