For This Reason,
Vessels Coming Round Cape Horn - As They Most All Do Nowadays - Find It
Sunday In Tahiti, When, According To Their Own View Of The Matter, It
Ought To Be Saturday.
But as it won't do to alter the log, the
sailors keep their Sabbath, and the islanders theirs.
This confusion perplexes the poor natives mightily; and it is to no
purpose that you endeavour to explain so incomprehensible a
phenomenon. I once saw a worthy old missionary essay to shed some
light on the subject; and though I understood but a few of the words
employed, I could easily get at the meaning of his illustrations.
They were something like the following:
"Here," says he, "you see this circle" (describing a large one on the
ground with a stick); "very good; now you see this spot here"
(marking a point in the perimeter): "well; this is Beretanee
(England), and I'm going to sail round to Tahiti. Here I go, then
(following the circle round), and there goes the sun (snatching up
another stick, and commissioning a bandy-legged native to travel
round with it in a contrary direction). Now then, we are both off,
and both going away from each other; and here you see I have arrived
at Tahiti (making a sudden stop); and look now where Bandy Legs is!"
But the crowd strenuously maintained that Bandy Legs ought to be
somewhere above them in the atmosphere; for it was a traditionary
fact that the people from the Duff came ashore when the sun was high
overhead.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 201 of 389
Words from 53124 to 53384
of 103097