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A VOYAGE TO 



■ 779! Their fifliing-hooks are made of mother-of-pearl, boni 



Marc!;. 



or wood, pointed and barbed with fmall bones, or tortoife- 

 fhell. They are of various fizes and forms ; but the mod 

 common are about two or three inches long, and made in 

 the fhape of a fmall fifh, which ferves as a bait, having a 

 bunch of feathers tied to the head or tail. Thofe with 

 which they fifh for fhaiks, are of a very large fize, being 

 generally fix or eight inches long. Confidering tne mate- 

 rials of which thefe hooks are made, their ftrength and 

 neatnefs are really aftonifhing ; and in fact we found them, 

 upon trial, much fuperior to our own. 



The line which they ufe for fidiing for making nets, and 

 for other domeftic purpofes, is of different degrees of fine- 

 nefs, and is made of the bark of the touta, or cloth tree, 

 neatly and evenly twifted, in the fame manner as our com- 

 mon twine ; and may be continued to any length. They 

 have a finer fort, made of the bark of a fmall fhrub called 

 artemah\ and the fined is made of human hair; but this laft 

 is chiefly ufed for things of ornament. They alfo make 

 cordage of a llrongcr kind, for the rigging of their canoes, 

 from the fibrous coatings of the cocoa-nuts. Some of this 

 we purchafcd for our own ufe, and found it well adapted to 

 the fmaller kinds of running rigging. They likewife make 

 another fort of cordage, which is flat, and exceedingly 

 flrong, and ufed principally in ladling the roofing of their 

 houfcs, or whatever rhey wilh to ralten tight together. 

 This lad is not twifted like the former forts, but is made of 

 the fibrous firings of the cocoa-nut's coat, plaited with the 

 fingers, in the manner our failors make their points for the 

 reefing of fails. 



The gourds, which grow to fo enormous a fize, that fome 

 of them arc capable of containing from ten to twelve gal- 

 lons, 



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