474 



MODES OF FISHING. BASKETS. MATS. 



FIG. 213. 



nets for fishing." They had also a kind of seine net, made 

 " of a coarse broad grass, the blades of which are like flags : 

 these they twist and tie together in a loose manner, till the 

 net, which is about as wide as a large sack, is from sixty to 

 eighty fathoms long ; this they haul in shoal-smooth water, 

 and its own weight keeps it so close to the ground that 



scarcely a single fish can escape." They 

 also used certain leaves and fruit which, 

 when thrown into the water, inebriated 

 the fish to such a degree that they might 

 be caught by the hands.* Their fishing- 

 lines were made of the bark of the Erowa, 

 a kind of nettle which grows in the moun- 

 tains, and were described as " the best fish- 

 ing-lines in the world," better even than 

 our strongest silk lines. They also used 

 the fibres of the cocoa-nut for making 

 threads, with which they fastened together 

 the various parts of their canoes. They 

 were very dexterous in making basket and 

 wicker-work, " of a thousand different pat- 

 terns, many of them exceedingly neat ;" 

 they also made many sorts of mats from 

 rushes, grass, and bark, which were woven 

 with great neatness and regularity, although 

 south sea Fish-hook, entirely by hand and without any loom or 

 machinery.-)- But their principal manufacture was a kind of 

 cloth, made from bark, and of which there were three varieties, 

 obtained respectively from the paper-mulberry, which was the 

 best, the bread-fruit tree, and a kind of fig. This last, though 

 less ornamental, was more useful than either of the others, 



* Forster, Observations made during a Voyage round the World, 

 p. 463 ; Ellis, vol. ii. p. 288. 



t Ellis, vol. ii. pp. 179, 180. 



