82 REMARKS AND OPINIONS^ 



but as thin as paper, pressed to each other, and ex- 

 tremely poUshed by rubbing. The whole forms a 

 pliable roll or cylinder about the thickness of a 

 finger, and several feet in length. 



These cords are said to have been current as a 

 means of commercial intercourse, and but a very 

 few chiefs had the right to manufacture and issue 

 them. 



Plates of tortoise-shell, of the large sea-turtle, are 

 differently pierced in the middle with a large hole, 

 and on the broad thin edge with several smaller 

 holes, or they have only one hole in the middle. 



Whoever, probably in swimming, had killed a 

 turtle, (in reality a very hazardous adventure,) 

 brought a plate of the mail to the chief, who, ac- 

 cording to the circumstances of the deed and the 

 assistance received in performing it, bored holes in 

 it ; the fewer of them the greater was the value. 

 Such trophies then gave the owner a certain right to 

 exchange them, according to established customs, 

 for other property, and passed, in a certain manner, 

 as means of commerce and signs of value. 



While the islanders of Guahon, says Crozet, ac- 

 quired new information by their civilization, they 

 had no improvement to make with respect to the 

 building of their boats, the art of doing which they 

 had inherited from their fathers, and perfectly 

 retained.* 



* Nouveau Voyage a la Mer du Sud, par Marion etDucles- 

 nieur, Redige sur les Plans et les Journcaux de M. Crozet, 

 p. 204-. 



