398 ARRIVAL AT THE SAMOAN GROUP. [1841. 



are principally used in fishing, for which they have hooks of 

 shell, bone, or shark's teeth, attached to long lines made of 

 twisted bark. For the protection of their boats they have 

 large quays built of coral blocks, containing slips ten feet 

 wide, in which there are boat houses erected on poles and 

 thatched with pandanus leaves. 



Of mechanical ingenuity they possess a great share. Their 

 houses, canoes, mats, stools, boxes, and fish hooks, all denote 

 the possession of considerable skill by the makers. The in- 

 struments with which they work are saws and files, formed 

 of shark's skins stretched on sticks, and a drill. The drill 

 consists of a long stick passing through a flat circular piece 

 of wood, designed to steady it when in operation : at the 

 lower end a sharp-pointed stone is attached with bark twine, 

 and the motion is communicated by means of a handle cross- 

 ing the upright stick at right angles, near the centre, and 

 secured in its place by a lashing of sennit. 



They have a keen relish for the ridiculous, and are fond 

 of dancing. Their dances are like those on the other islands 

 of Polynesia. For music they have two different kinds of 

 drums; one made of a hollow log, like those of the Feejeeans 

 and Tongese, and the other consisting of a cylindrical frame 

 set upright in the ground, with a shark's skin drawn over it, 

 as in the Hawaiian Islands. When they salute each other, 

 or a stranger, they rub noses and chins together, and encircle 

 the neck with their arms, uttering at the same time a low 

 wail, like the aloha of the Sandwich Islander. 



(3.) Captain Hudson remained but a short time at 

 Fakaafo, but continued without delay on his route to the 

 Samoan Group, stopping on the way only long enough to sur- 

 vey Swain's Island, a circular coral islet, without a lagoon, 

 but little over four miles in circumference, in latitude 11° 5' 

 S., and longitude 170° 55 15" W. On the 5th of February 

 the tall mountains of Savaii were discovered looming up 

 above the southern horizon, and on the afternoon of the 6th 

 instant, the Peacock anchored in the harbor of Apia, while 



