Note 23 — Chapter I · TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS

Ellis, Narrative, p. 368; Hiram Bingham, A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands, Hartford, 1849, pp. 177 sq. Describing his experiences at Kihoro, the missionary Ellis could not restrain his admiration of the conduct of the native converts on Sunday: “No athletic sports were seen on the beach; no noise of playful children shouting as they gambolled in the surf, nor distant sound of the cloth-beating mallet was heard through the day; no persons were seen carrying burdens in or out of the village, nor any canoes passing across the bay. It could not but be viewed as the dawn of a bright sabbatic day for the dark shores of Hawaii” (Polynesian Researches, iv, 408). For similar statements see C. S. Stewart, A Visit to the South Seas, London, 1832, pp. 277 sqq., 302 sq.