ETHNOLOGY HEDLEY. 275 



Funafuti example selected for description weighs, with its cord of 

 attachment, three and a quarter ounces ; the greatest length is 

 nine and a quarter inches, the shorter limb is seven and three- 

 quarter inches, the greatest width between the limbs is one and 

 three-quarter inches, and the length of the barb is two inches. 



The separate barb is roughly L-shaped, one limb being bevelled 

 to form a scarf -joint with the shank, the other carved into the 

 exact shape of a fowl's spur, to which, when affixed to the shank, 

 its resemblance is increased by occupying the same relative position 

 to the limb of the shank as the spur does to the fowl's leg. The 

 joint is completed by a whipping for its entire length of flat sinnet. 

 The most striking peculiarity of the palu hook is the extent to 

 which the entering barb is carried, almost closing the loop of the 

 hook. As the length of the barb is proportionate to the size of 

 the hook, the size of the aperture is decided, not by the length of 

 the barb but, by the divergence of the limbs of the shank. The 

 specimen figured is extremely narrow, a quarter of an inch only 

 separating the point of the barb from the opposite limb of the 

 shank. Finsch's Tarowa hook exhibits an opposite extreme of 

 width which can be matched in a hook from Nukulailai, where 

 three-quarters of an inch intervene between barb and shank. If 

 the hook is held before the eye so that the shorter limb of the 

 shank appears super-imposed upon the longer, the barb is usually 

 seen to be slightly deflected to the right. When, as in the Mort- 

 lock hooks, this feature is exaggerated, the complete hook is 

 thrown into an ascending spiral. Considerable diversity exists 

 in the method of splicing the barb to the shank. In the Ellice 

 Islands the face of the joint is in a plane at right angles to the 

 plane of the hook, but the Funafuti craftsmen attach the barb 

 to the inner face of the shank, whereas the men of Nukulailai 

 fasten it (as is shown in the barbless shank on Finsch's plate, and 

 as Edge-Partington correctly figures it) to the outer side, as do 

 also the fishers of Fakaafu. 



Reference has previously been made to a series of hooks 

 from the Mortlock Group* in the Australian Museum. Com- 

 pared with the Ellice hooks these are enormous, the largest 

 weighing one pound fifteen and three-quarter ounces, and 

 measuring seventeen and a half inches. Grooves gnawed by 

 captured fish upon the shanks attest their genuineness, and their 

 size suggests that they were intended for a form of palu larger 

 than that taken in mid-Pacific. In all points of construction they 

 conform to the smaller type except in the setting of the barb. 

 Here the scarf-joint is cut in the plane of the hook, that is, at 

 right angles to the Ellice Island joint. 



* Which of the two groups known by this name is intended is uncertain, 

 but probably the northern is meant. 



