ETHNOLOGY HEDLEY. 



HAND-NETS. 



277 



"Tei" is the name of a small hand-net (figs. 42, 43) for use in the 

 rock pools of the reef at low tide. It consists of a bag net mounted 

 upon a frame and set upon a stout ten-foot pole, probably of 



Fig. 42. 



Fig. 43. 



Thespesia. The frame is in four pieces, apparently Rhizophora 

 wood. Two forks, somewhat the shape selected by boat-builders 

 for knees, are so trimmed and set that while the shorter arms, 

 three inches long, clasp the handle, being lashed thereto with fine 

 sinnet, the longer arms, nineteen inches long and half an inch in 

 diameter, continue nearly in the plane of the pole and diverge 

 symmetrically from each other at an angle of about forty-five 

 degrees. Two shorter pieces, about ten inches long and a third 

 of an inch thick, are at their bases jointed on to the inner extremi- 

 ties of the longer arms, by the same method as the former are 

 attached to the pole, while their extremities are crossed and 

 lashed together. These shorter pieces are so bent that the end 

 of the net is almost at right angles to the remainder of the frame. 

 (fig. 43). Additional security is given by a piece of hard wood, 

 probably Pemphis, six inches long, set T-wise on the end of the 

 pole, and firmly lashed both to it and to the frame of the net. The 

 bag is pointed, shallow, about a foot deep, sixteen inches long and 

 fourteen inches wide, of three-quarter inch mesh of fine sinnet. 

 The knot employed in meshing is the universal bow-line or 

 weaver's knot.* The bag is fastened to the frame by a cord 



* For instances of the use of this knot by Australian Aborigines, se 

 Brough Smyth Aborigines of Victoria, i., 1878, p. 390, fig. 225 ; and R. 

 Etheridge, Junr. Macleay Memorial Vol., 1893, p. 249, pi. xxxii , fig. 9. 

 For Polynesian instances see p. 64 of this work. 



