[River resorts.] They are a source of great attraction to the
passing sailors, who resort to them for eating, drinking, and other
convivialities; and while away the time there in gambling, betel
chewing, and smoking, with idle companions of both sexes.

[Sleeping pilots.] At times somebody may be seen floating down
the stream asleep on a heap of coconuts. If the nuts run ashore,
the sleeper rouses himself, pushes off with a long bamboo, and
contentedly relapses into slumber, as his eccentric raft regains
the current of the river. One cut of his bolo-knife easily detaches
sufficient of the husk of the nuts to allow of their being fastened
together; in this way a kind of wreath is formed which encircles and
holds together the loose nuts piled up in the middle.

[Labor-saving conditions.] The arduous labors of many centuries
have left as their legacy a perfect system of transport; but in
these Islands man can obtain many of his requirements direct with
proportionately trifling labor, and a large amount of comfort for
himself.

[Easy food.] Off the Island of Talim, in the great Lagoon of Bay, my
boatmen bought for a few cuartos several dozens of fish quite twelve
inches long; and those which they couldn't eat were split open, salted,
and dried by a few hours' exposure to the heat of the sun on the roof
of the boat. When the fishermen had parted with their contemplated
breakfast, they stooped down and filled their cooking-vessels with
sand-mussels (paludina costata, 2.a G.), first throwing away the
dead ones from the handfuls they picked up from the bottom of the
shallow water.