276 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



The longer or unarmed limb of the shank terminates in a knob 

 on the outer side, half an inch below which is carved a smaller 

 projection. The cord of attachment is a piece of round plaited 

 coconut rope (oukaf akanapoua) about two feet in length; the loop 

 in which it ends is slipped over the smaller projection of the shank, 

 and the cord lashed securely to the inner side of the shank by 

 sinnet passing between the knobs. In the Mortlock hooks the 

 cord of attachment terminates distally in a loop, evidently for 

 "bending on " the fishing-line, in which it agrees with the Gilbert 

 Island type ; in the Ellice a knot ends this cord. 



One Mortlock specimen has a straight stick, fourteen inches 

 long and half an inch broad, so lashed on to the cord of attach- 

 ment as almost to hinge to the long limb of the shank. A some- 

 what similar but not identical method of mounting the palu hook 

 is shown by Edge-Partington* in an instance from Niue. No 

 Ellice hooks present this feature, but we cannot assert that they 

 may not also be thus prepared for service. 



Mr. O'Brien told me that the bait was a whole fish split and 

 laid scale to scale upon either side of the barb. In bolting this 

 the palu, whose jaws are very thin and pliable, gets the barb caught 

 behind the angle of the jaw. Sometimes, when the fish bites, 

 the, line is so jerked as to bang its head with the flat stone used 

 as a sinker. 



Finsch gives the name of this hook in the Gilberts as "tingia," 

 the name of it on Funafuti is " kou boru." 



MESHING NEEDLES. 



The meshing-needle, " afa," is carved from mangrove 

 (Rhizophora) wood ; in length it is sixteen or eighteen 

 inches, in breadth about an inch across the eye and three- 

 eighths across the shaft. The eye is about an eighth of 

 the total length, the proximal end of it is cut either square 

 or pointed, and the distal end simply split. The Funafuti 

 pattern (fig. 41) is hardly to be distinguished from one 

 used by English fishermen. The Australian Museum 

 possesses examples of this implement exactly like the 

 above, received from Greenwich and Sikaiana Islands. 

 Further modifications are given by Edge-Partington 



Fig. 41. from various Pacific Islands, f One such shuttle, ready 

 loaded, depends from a group of Papuan implements 



figured by Lindt from China Straits. J 



* Edge-Partington loc. cit.. i., pi. Ixvii., fig. 6. 



t Edge-Partington loc. cit., i., pi. xxxii., figs. 15, 16, from Tahiti ; pi. 

 cxiii., fig. 22, and pi. cxix... fig. 14, from Fiji ; pi. clxxvi. ; ii., pi. cxciii., 

 fig. 6, from New Guinea. 



J Lindt Picturesque New Guinea, 1897, pi. xliv. 



