342 NATUKAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



lected and pminded together with sand. The sand was used to make the 

 mixture sink more readily to the bottom. With a quantity of this poison in 

 the canoe the fisherman would search out a tide pool, cave^, or hole in the reef 

 inhabited by a number of species of fish. A long seine was first put out in 

 a circle about the spot to prevent the fish from escaping. The poison mixture 

 was then rolled in small packages or placed in a bag and carried down to the 

 bottom by the fisherman in order to distribute it about to advantage in the 

 holes in the rock. In ten or fifteen minutes the fish would come to the top in a 

 stupefied condition, when they were easily gathered from the surface of the 

 water. If allowed to remain too long in the water they would recover from the 

 effects of the drug. When used as food they seem to be in no way injured by 

 the poison used in their capture. 



Fishing at Night. 



A very pictures(|ue method of fishing, much employed in former times by 

 the natives, was by the light of tlie torch. At favorable seasons dozens of 

 fishermen could be seen, each with a lighted fagot in one hand made of a 

 bundle of ti leaves or a string of kukui nuts wrapped around with ti leaves 

 to make a handle, and in the other a small net or spear. As the men and 

 women waded about over the reef, the reflection in the shallow vrater from 

 the flickering lights, together with the shadowy outline of the natives, their 

 excited voices and weird, fantastic movements produced an impression on the 

 mind of the spectator that time could not readily efface. 



A method of fishing with a snare w^as perhaps peculiai- to the Haw^aiian 

 Islands. This method was much employed in fishing for eel. It consisted in 

 throwing the bait near a hole. In this way these greedy and unsuspecting 

 animals were enticed through a wide noose which, attached through a loop, 

 dangled from the end of a heavy pole. When the critical moment arrived the 

 noose was hauled taut about the eel, and up snug against the end of the pole, 

 by drawing in on the end of the line which passed along the pole to the hand. 



Fishing with the hands was a common practice among the natives, but line 

 fishing was more extensively follow^ed and in general yielded better returns. 

 Ingenious fishhooks made of mother-of-pearl shells w^ere much used, though 

 bone, ivory and tortoise-shell found an important place in the manufacture of 

 these useful implements. 



Fish Bait. 



The selection of a suitable l)ait was by no means a simple task. While the 

 live shrimp or opae was very frequently used, Mr. Joseph S. Emerson collected 

 a list of no fewer than twenty-two compounded baits that w^ere built up on a 

 single base material. It is estimated that there w^ere probably more than a 

 hundred kinds of bait known to the skilled fisherman in ancient times in 

 Hawaii. For line fishing, however, the live bait was preferred, and they had a 

 method for catching the daily supply that will bear repeating among Hawaiian 



