OCEANIC MIGRATIONS. 159 



other was a cylindrical frame set upright on the ground, with a piece 

 of shark's skin stretched tightly over the top. Its shape reminded us 

 of the West India tomtom, and it was beaten, like our drums, with 

 two sticks. As soon as its sound was heard, a few of the natives 

 commenced a dance, apparently to divert us, for they laughed heartily 

 at the same time. The motions of the dance were similar to those 

 we had seen at the other islands, but, like their singing, more varied 

 and pleasing. 



" The natives appeared to be still anxious for our departure, and 

 kept urging us to our boats, pointing to the sun with the words uapo 

 (it is night), and frequently repeating fiaula, Jiaula lava, which we 

 interpreted ' very much tired.' At the same time they continued to 

 bring us articles for trade, which they exchanged for any trifle we 

 chose to offer them, preferring, however, knives and fish-hooks. Many 

 of their manufactures gave evidence of considerable ingenuity. The 

 principal were mats, boxes, fish-hooks, files, saws, drills, and orna- 

 ments for the person. The mats were of two kinds, for beds and for 

 clothing; the former were three or four feet square, coarse, and 

 braided of cocoa-nut and pandanus-leaves. The maros, or girdles, 

 were from six to eighteen inches wide, some of them very fine in 

 texture, with fringes on the sides and ends. Their length varied from 

 a few feet to five or six yards. The cinctures worn by the women 

 were a singular fabric. They consisted of a great number of long 

 leaves (probably paudanus) tied at one end to a cord, and then slit 

 into fine strands. The leaves were dry, and appeared to be kept well 

 oiled, probably to render them flexible. They were so many, and so 

 closely packed, that the dress, when rolled up, formed an enormous 

 bundle of straw, of a weight which, one would have thought, must 

 have rendered it exceedingly inconvenient. 



" The boxes were cylindrical, in the shape of small buckets, neatly 

 hollowed from a solid piece, and of different capacities, from a gill to a 

 half-gallon. They were used by the natives in their canoes, to hold 

 their fishing-tackle and other light articles that they wished to pre- 

 serve from the wet. The lids were made to fit tight with a rim, like 

 those of our snuff-boxes. The fish-hooks were of bone, shark's teeth, 

 and shell, many of them as small as our trout-hooks, and made with 

 remarkable neatness. The files and saws were of shark's skin, 

 stretched on sticks, its roughness being sufficient to wear down the 

 soft wood and bone to which it is applied. The construction of their 

 drills was quite ingenious, but could hardly be understood without a 



