The common beverage is water, but they make tea from the tee-plant, flavoured with ginger, and sweetened with the juice of the sugar-cane.

They but seldom kill a pig, living mostly on fruit and vegetables.

With this simple diet, early rising, and taking a great deal of exercise, they are subject to few diseases; and Captain Beechey says, 'they are certainly a finer and more athletic race than is usually found among the families of mankind.' The young children are punctual in their attendance at school, and are instructed by John Buffet in reading, writing, and arithmetic; to which are added, precepts of religion and morality, drawn chiefly from the Bible and Prayer Book; than which, fortunately, they possess no others that might mystify and perplex their understandings on religious subjects.

They seldom indulge in jokes or other kinds of levity; and Beechey says, they are so accustomed to take what is said in its literal meaning, that irony was always considered a falsehood in spite of explanation; and that they could not see the propriety of uttering what was not strictly true, for any purpose whatever.

The Sabbath is wholly devoted to the church service, to prayer, reading, and serious meditation; no work of any kind is done on that day, not even cooking, which is prepared on the preceding evening.
'I attended,' says Beechey, 'their church on this day, and found the service well conducted; the prayers were read by Adams, and the lessons by Buffet, the service being preceded by hymns.