PORTER’S JOURNAL 
128 
maent. Can it be supposed, for a moment, that a nation of people 
who are amphibious, who are one half of their time in the water? 
who are in the habit of bathing' at almost every stream, who are 
almost destitute of clothing and perfectly naked from the upper 
part of the thighs downwards, should fall on so ridiculous an ex¬ 
pedient for crossing the insignificant rivuiets of an island, whose 
circumference does not exceed twenty leagues, rivulets which 
the greater part of the year are nearly dry, and at all times bare¬ 
ly afford sufficient water for a ship? 
They are used, as I before observed, solely for amusement; 
they enter into their gymnastic exercises, they run with them, 
and endeavour to trip one another. They are curiouslywrought, 
and as Mr. Fieurien wrote his description of those of the 
island of St. Christiana, with a pair of stilts before him, and 
as the description answers exactly to those of Nooaheevah (Ma¬ 
dison’s Island) I take the liberty of using the words of that ele¬ 
gant writer. 
“ The care they take to build their houses on stone platforms, 
“ which raise them to a certain elevation above the ground, has 
“ already indicated that their island must be exposed to inun- 
' u dations; and the use which they make of stilts, confirms this 
“ opinion. These stilts, to which the English voyagers appear not 
“ to have paid attention, are contrived in a manner which announ- 
“ ces that the inundations, are not regular, but vary in their height: 
“and want, which is the parent of industry, has suggested to the 
“ inhabitants of St. Christiana a method as simple as it is ingeni- 
“ ous, by which this help, that is necessary to them for keeping 
“ up a communication with each other in the rainy season, may 
“ be employed equally as well in the highest waters, as the low- 
“ est. For this purpose each stilt is composed of two pieces: the 
“ one, of hard wood and of a single piece, may be called the step; 
“the other is a pole of light wood, more or less long according to 
«the stature of the person who is to make use of it. The step is 
u eleven or twelve inches in length, an inch and a half in thick- 
“ ness; and its breadth, which is four inches at the top, is reduced 
“ to half an inch at the bottom. The hind part is hollowed out 
“ like a gutter or scupper, in order to be applied against the pole, 
as a check or fish is, in sea terms, applied against a mast; and it 
