UJI. 261 



"well executed zig-zag pattern tinted red, white, and black, 

 as well as other ornamentation, the whole evincing a re- 

 markable appreciation of symmetrical arrangement and 

 capacity for executing it. Tlie reverse side, on which there 

 is nothing in relief, represents four highly ornamented 

 canoes manned, one of them bottom upwards and part of 

 the crew upon it struggling to keep off the sharks, several 

 of which are busily engaged in devouring such of their less 

 fortunate companions as have been luiable to regain the 

 canoe. The groundwork is black, and the canoes, fish, men, 

 &c. are engraved upon it, and painted white, relieved here 

 and tliere with red and black. Among tlic fish regaling 

 themselves on tlic remains of the bodies which they have 

 partially devoured, are to be found more than one species. 

 The long central fish is the Sphyrcena, popularly known as 

 the Barracuda ; of the others, the larger are sharks, the 

 smaller Ballistes.* The groundwork is divided into two com- 

 partments, ornamentally separated from one another, each 

 containing two canoes. In one of the canoes of either group 

 is to be seen a raised platform, the one in the right group 

 bearing a bowl, the other in the left group being without 

 one. It has been surmised that there is here a reference to 

 a custom among some of these islanders of propitiating the 

 sliarks by an offering in the shape of a libation, and that 

 the canoe not upset or attacked has performed the cere- 

 mony. The two canoes in the right compartment may be 



' I am indebted to Dr. Giinther, of the British Museum, for the 

 names of the fish. 



