COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 40] 
nected at each end; the hoops lap over each other and are tied together 
so as to keep the bag open when in the water. A rope runs from each 
of these and meets a short distance above the bag, from which junction 
there is only one rope. The bag itself is very deep, usually about 40 
feet, with a diameter of about 12 feet at the mouth and tapering 
slightly at the bottom. They are made of imported flax, so as to be as 
light as possible. The bag is taken out to deep water in a canoe, and 
when the fishermen reach what they consider a favorable spot they lower 
the bag into about 8 fathoms of water. Bait, composed of cooked 
squash or pumpkin, small ground-up fish mixed with sand, and cooked 
papaia and bananas mashed up fine, is dropped into or over the bag. 
When the fish are gathered over and in the bag it is carefully and 
‘apidly drawn up, and when it reaches the surface the ropes on the 
side are unloosed and the mouth closed up. The bag is then emptied 
inte the canoe and the operation repeated until the fish become shy. 
The opelu, when eaten raw, is said to prevent seasickness. 
The native sometimes constructs the above net from twine made 
from the bark of the olona (Zouchardia latifolia) bush or shrub. The 
bush grows in large shoots. These are cut down and the bark stripped 
off in bundles and put into running water, so that it will not ferment 
and in order that the pulpy matter, etc., will decompose. It is kept 
there for four or five days, until it becomes thoroughly clean. It is 
then taken out and spread on boards of hard wood—kauwila wood 
generally—made expressly for this kind of work. This wood is very 
scarce and valuable now. These boards are 6 feet long and 8 or 10 
inches wide. The strips of bark are spread on the boards and a man 
cuts out pieces of the inside with a bone, 23 inches wide and 10 inches 
long, with one side beveled to an edge. This bone is held tightly in 
the hands, and with it the natives scrape the bark lying on the board. 
Everything is scraped away, leaving the fiber perfectly clean. It is 
then dried and twisted by hand by the women. It is stripped into 
fine threads, and two threads are twisted together by women rolling 
them on their bare thighs. This fiber is stronger than linen and will 
last for generations. 
For catching nehu (anchovies and silversides), very small fish much 
used for bait and for drying as food, a bag net (upena nehu) is made 
from a piece of netting about a fathom square, attached on two sides 
to sticks about 3 feet in length, and fulled in the bottom rope shorter 
than the upper one and forming an irregular square opening to a 
shallow bag, which is supplemented by a long, narrow bag about 6 feet 
deep. Ropes hung with dried ki leaves are attached to each side of 
the net, and these ropes are run around the school, thus driving them 
into the net. 
Nehu fishing is generally carried on in deep water. 
A bag net (upena pua) made in the same manner is used for catching 
amaama, young mullet. Instead of ropes with ki leaves, the ‘‘sea 
F.C. 1901 
26 
