FISH]>;(i. 153 



been retained, but the utility has been lost. This plan is in fact 

 nothing more than the employment of a float, which is thrown into 

 the water by the fisherman, who follows it iip in his canoe and looks 

 out for its bob. 



In the eastern islands the fishing spear is frequently employed. 

 With this weapon in his hand, the native wades in the shallow water 

 on the flats of the reefs, and hurls it at any passing fish. The night- 

 time is often chosen for this mode of fishing. A part}" of natives 

 provided with torches, spread themselves along the edge of the reof 

 and stand ready to throw their spears as the fish dart by them. 

 During the day, when the reef-flats at low-tide ai-e covered only by 

 a small depth of water, the fishermen advance in a semicircle until a 

 fish is observed, when the two wings close in, and the fish is sur- 

 rounded. The kind of fish-spear which they use much resembles 

 that which Mr. Ellis describes in his account of the Society Islands.^ 

 As shown in the engra\dng (p. 155), the head of the fish-spear is com- 

 posed of five fore-shafts of hard wood, notched at their sides, and ar- 

 janged around a similar fore-shaft. These are bound together, and the 

 whole is fitted into the end of a stout bamboo, giving the weapon a 

 total length of about seven feet .... The fish-spear does not 

 appear to be so commonly used by the natives of Bougainville 

 Straits. There, its place is often taken by the bow and arrow, 

 which are weapons that are not in use amongst the natives of 

 St. Christoval and the adjacent islands at the eastern end of the 

 group. 



I should here remark that, when fishing on the reefs, natives are 

 sometimes struck by the gar-fish with such force that they die from 

 the wound. The possibility of this occurrence has recently been 

 doubted. But that such is the case, we incidentally learned from 

 the natives of the Shortlands. The people of Wano, on the north 

 coast of St. Christoval, believe that the ghosts which haunt the sea, 

 cause the flying-fish and the gar-fish to dart out of the water and 

 to strike men in the canoes : and they hold that any man thus 

 struck will die.^ This superstitious belief could only have arisen 

 from the circumstance of natives having met their death in this 

 manner ; and it is probable that in this respect the larger flying- 

 fish would be quite as much to be feared as the gar-fish. Mr. 



^ " Polynesian Researches," vol. I,, p. 143. 



2 "Religious Beliefs and Practices in Melanesia," by the Rev. R. H. Codrington, M.A. 

 Journal of Anthropolo?;ical Institute, vol. X. 



