Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places, South Sea Islands, page 156

Page 156

Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places

South Sea Islands

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South Sea Islands (continued)

the daughter of their cheif Divinity Taroataihetoomoo and that she in process of time brought forth the months, who in their turn produc'd the days, of which they count 29 in every month including one on which the moon is invisible. Every one of these has its respective name and is again subdivided into 12 parts containing about 2 hours each, 6 for the day and 6 for the night, each of which has likewise its respective name; in the day time they guess the divisions of these parts very well, but in the night tho they have the same number of divisions as in the day seem very little able to tell at any time which of them it then is, except the cleverer among them who know the stars.

In counting they proceed from 1 to 10, having a different name for each number; from thence they say one more, 2 more &c. till the number 20, which after being calld in the general count 10 more acquires a new name, as we say a score; by these scores they count till they have got 10 of them, which again acquires a new name, 200; these again are counted till they get 10 of them, 2000; which is the largest denomination I have ever heard them make use of and I suppose is as large as they can ever have occasion

Voyaging Accounts

© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 403, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-156.html