68 
being, in all other respects, similar to the rest of the 
islanders. With regard to their observance of the 
Sabbath, most travellers who have written on the 
subject assure us, that though a remission of labour 
is universally allowed to their slaves occasionally, no 
particular day is set apart for it there more than in 
the other provinces: it rests entirely with the huma¬ 
nity of the masters; and, while some allow one day in 
each week, others extend it to ten days or a fortnight; 
and in no case is the day devoted to religious services, 
as the Sabbath is amongst Christians and Jews. 
The knowledge they have of Noah and Abraham 
is obviously accounted for; and as to that which they 
profess of Moses and David, they may have derived 
it (as well as the account of the creation) from the 
Mahometans, from whom also they have learned to 
abstain from swine’s flesh. Certainly the inference 
drawn from these circumstances, even if they are cor¬ 
rect, is not a necessary one; namely, that they descend 
from the Jews. 
The worship, which is founded upon the foregoing 
system of faith, is purely spontaneous, having neither 
divine nor moral law, nor even the shadow of revelation 
to enforce it: nor does it appear that innovations have 
taken place from their intercourse with other nations ; 
but that in this particular, as well as in their other cus¬ 
toms and manners, they retain the same forms and sen¬ 
timents as were practised and entertained fiy their fore¬ 
fathers in ages of remotest antiquity. Their prayers 
and addresses to the Deity are confined to periods of 
