.arts whoje horizon, is. divided into twelve -points;- ffo that two points
:ANI>
sciences wouldifall between two cardinals. *
T h e natives o f tliefe iiley could not help obferving, that the
bread fruit, their chief fubfiftence, -‘grows; but once during twelve
months or- revolutions o f the moon j for during the fpace o f feven
months this-fruitis gathered in abundance on the trees that bear it,
but during, five months they find none. This circumftance very
naturally muft lead them to inveftigate the true caufc o f it, the
revolution o f the fun, ; A t . the ; folftice in December, the fun is
in-its meridian .altitude beyond the ifle,' towards the South o f it,'
and in the folftice in June, he is in the Northern Hemilphere,
and therefore pafies twice a year through the zenith. About two
months before and after the time of the funs reaching the Southern
tropic, bread-fruit is very fcarce, and -daring the ffiafon from
Auguft to March; this fruit is very plentiful, being ripe -in March
or the beginning o f April, and this -laft feafon they .cail Pa^obfdo,
from the name o f bread-fruit. T h e mildnefs o f the climate
however is fuch, that there is always a tree here and there, which
from its peculiar fituation in a valley more elevated than the ‘plain
furrounding the ifle, or from its expofure on the Southern fide of
a high: hill, bears fruit at a-time when the generality o f trees1 of
this kind have rnone $ 1 and it is from thefe trees that their chiefs
and better fort o f people have a conftant fucceflion o f frelh breadfruit,
fruit, at a time when the reft o f the people are obliged to live arts
upon horfe-plantanes, the fruit o f the Ratta-tree, ( Imcarpus edulis) SCIENCES
the roots o f eddoes, or the Arum efculentum and macrorhizort, and
thofe o f yams or Diofcorea alata and oppojitifolia; or they then
chiefly ufe the Mahee or four-pafte prepared from fermented ripe
bread-fruit. *
T h e whole o f the bread-fruit feafon, including the time whe'n
they have none, is called :Tuoo, and is therefore anfwerable to a
year. Th e y count the revolutions o f the moo,n, and call them by
the fame name as the moon Marama or Malama. Th e y enumerated
to me thirteen names of moons or lunations, and then faid
Hare-te-taoo, the year-is gone; and added ftill Oomannoo, often,
•often, many - times; which feemed to imply, that the cyble of
the lunations is to.be repeated every year. They begin the year
about March, when they likewife begin to make their bread-fruit
four-pafte or Mahee, for which purpofe immenfe quantities -of
the fruit are plucked off, which naturally creates fome frarcity
o f this their chief aliment, and muft increafe the fame in proportion
as the feafon advances. I cannot, from the mere enumeration of
the thirteen names o f months, prevail on myfelf to think that
their year has thirteen lunations, but rather fuppofe that they have
T t t but
* The defctiption of the operations' neccflaiy for this purpofe, is given in--Hawkefwbrth,
Yol. ii\ p. 198) 199«