THE OCEAN AS A SOURCE OF FOOD SUPPLY 189 



islands even now, although the march of civilization 

 is fast sweeping those early arts away, and replacing 

 them with the more useful and durable, but far less 

 interesting and picturesque, tackle of Europe and 

 America. I have not been in Oahu for many years, 

 but even so long ago I saw that the steel fish-hook 

 and the cotton or hemp-line was becoming universal 

 in use among the natives, and now, I suppose, it would 

 be almost impossible to find any of the fishing-tackle 

 of native manufacture in use among them, or, indeed, 

 outside of a museum. 



Out of the husk of the cocoa-nut, most unpromising 

 of fibres, from its rigidity and hardness as well as 

 shortness of fibre, the patient native spun his lines of 

 a fineness and durability quite marvellous to see, 

 especially when it is remembered that no mechanical 

 appliances were available, only the twisting up by the 

 fingers and the dexterous rolling on the bare thigh 

 to give the necessary " lay " to the line which makes 

 for strength. For the finer parts of the line, such as 

 the " snoods " of the hooks, etc., human hair was used, 

 and very fine and strong it was when spun up. But 

 it was in the hooks that the inventive genius of the 

 Kanaka showed itself principally. Some were of pearl- 

 shell, patiently ground down into a hook shape with 

 a piece of stone and sand, and when finished, shining 

 so brilliantly in the water that no bait was needed, 

 the fish were allured by the sheen alone. For bigger 

 fish a forked tree-root was chosen, and laboriously 

 scraped with a piece of sharp shell into the needed 

 shape, a lashing of fine coir, or hair-twine, being often 

 added around the bend of the hook to give additional 

 strength. With such hooks as these I have seen quite 



