168 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES 
and position of the stars, especially at sea These 
were their only guides, in steering their fragile 
barks across the deep. When setting out on a 
voyage, some particular star or constellation was 
selected as their guide in the night. This they 
called their aveia, and by this name they now 
designate the compass, because it answers the 
same purpose. The Pleiades were a favourite 
aveia with their sailors, and by them, in the pre¬ 
sent voyage, we steered during the night. We 
had, indeed, a lantern and a compass in the boat, 
but, being a light ship’s compass, it was of little 
service. 
Although the Polynesians were destitute of all 
correct knowledge of the sciences, the first prin¬ 
ciples of which have been recently taught in the 
academy more regularly than they had heretofore 
been, they had what might be called a rude system 
of astronomy. They possessed more than one 
method of computing time; and their extensive 
use of numbers is astonishing, when we consider 
that their computations were purely efforts of mind, 
Unassisted by books or figures. 
Their ideas, as might naturally be expected, 
were fabulous in the extreme. They imagined 
that the sea which surrounded their islands was a 
level plane, and that at the visible horizon, or 
some distance beyond it, the sky, or rai , joined 
the ocean, enclosing as with an arch, or hollow 
cone, the islands in the immediate vicinity. They 
were acquainted with other islands, as Nuuhiva, 
or the Marquesas, Vaihi, or the Sandwich Islands, 
Tongatabu, or the Friendly Islands. The names of 
these occurred in their traditions or songs. Sub¬ 
sequently, too, they had heard of Beritani, or 
Britain, Paniola, or Spain, &c. but they imagined 
