FIJI LIFE, PAST AND PRESENT. 89 



is the performance of duty. In many parts of the Pacific, the 

 whale's tooth is regarded as a propitiatory sacrifice, and at one 

 time, on the death of a Fiji chief, two of these teeth were 

 placed in his hands to throw at the tree which was supposed 

 to stand on the road to the regions of the departed. 



The Fijians are the most skilful boat-builders of all the in- 

 habitants of Polynesia, and until comparatively recent times 

 quite a brisk trade was done in this branch of industry. The 

 larger kind of canoe is usually built double like the Calais- 

 Douvres, braced together with a sort of extending upper-deck 

 on which a small house is erected. The bottom of the canoe 

 is formed of one single plank to which the sides are dovetailed, 

 as well as being strengthened by lashings, and the joints are 

 made watertight by gum. The depth of hold is generally 

 about 6 feet, while they are frequently as long as 100 feet. 

 When they cannot use the sails the natives propel the canoes 

 by oars about 10 feet in length ; and when rowing, they stand 

 up to their work. In all canoes there are small hatchways 

 with high combings at both ends, and when under way a man 

 is continually employed in bailing out the water. The canoes 

 of the rokos have immense white sails and royal streamers, and 

 are much adorned with shells of the cyprcea ovula. These crafts 

 sail very fast, and have a beautiful appearance ; but the pictu- 

 resque is giving way to the practical in Fiji as elsewhere, as 

 some of the chiefs have now small cutters of the English 

 pattern, and I think it very unlikely that many more of the 

 highest-class canoes will ever be built in the colony again. 



These canoes are steered by an oar which, for the large ones, 

 is about 20 feet long with an 8 feet blade and 16 inches wide, 

 and which is very heavy. Their weight, however, is eased by 

 means of a rope passed through the top of the blade, the other 

 end being made fast to the middle beam of the deck. Kudder- 



