506 SEA CHARTS USED IN THE MARSHALL ISLANDS. 



between the Bungdockerik and Bungdockeing'. If he got awa}^ from 

 the Okar, he had from the well-known marks to find it again. That 

 an extraordinary talent for observation and also great discipline was 

 necessary for this goes without sa34ng. That it was possible to the 

 chiefs I must believe from the explanations given to me, which were 

 always the same. I have had a series of journeys between various 

 islands pointed out to me, but always got the same directions. 



That the Dunungs and the Kabbelungs in quiet water are very 

 remarkal)le in the Marshall group. I have convinced myself; but the 

 statement of the chiefs that the Kabbelungs arising near two neigh- 

 boring atolls run into each other in such a manner that a canoe, by 

 following the boots of one atoll, must come to the boots of the other, 

 and that from these an okar is formed, though not in a direct line, 

 are assertions vet lacking in clearness, and they are difficult to put 

 in form. 



So, it is not quite conceivable that one may know, when he has got- 

 ten out of the okar, eastward or westward, or likewise northward or 

 southward, whether in the tirst case the Kilil) or Bungdockeing, or in 

 the second case the Kaelib or Bungdockerik, is perceptibly the pre- 

 ponderating phenomenon. I have long positively refused to admit 

 this possilnlity. but umst agree in the presence of universally expressed 

 opinions. Joachim de Brun told me that at first he had not believed 

 in these appearances in the water, but on a cruise which he had 

 shared his attention had been called by the chiefs and now he himself 

 had witnessed that the differences could be clearly observed. Proba- 

 bly also, for the art of navigation here described, many other local 

 phenomena are at hand, closeh' associated with the peculiar situation 

 of this thickly set island region. 



M}' doubts in the beginning, whether such a variety of signs could 

 altogether be taken into consideration, and m}^ opinion that very 

 probably the chiefs had made the Rilibs with the help of the heavens 

 the ground of their courses pursued, were opposed by the charts 

 themselves with their man}' lines and symbols, which would be entirely 

 unnecessary. The existence of the charts, the fixed meaning of the 

 lines on them, prove quite conclusively that the water phenomena 

 noted on them must have been used in navigation. 



If the course be lost, and the Dunungs are not recognized so that 

 the okar can be found again, the chiefs then try to make the islands 

 by means of the Rolok, perhaps, or Nit-in-kot, or Jur-in-okme, and if 

 all these efforts fail the case is desperate. In the northern part of 

 the archipelago the struggle would be to keep inside the group, in 

 order somewhere to strike another island, and this generally suc- 

 ceeded; in the southern part, on a voyage between Jaluit, Ebon, and 

 Namorik, the Boots were, under unfavorable conditions, entirely 

 obliterated, of which some examples will be given at the close. 



