278 



FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



threaded through a mesh of each row and carried spirally along 



the frame. 



No net quite like this seems to be represented in literature, the 



nearest approach being one figured by Finsch* from the Gilbert 



Islands. 



FOWLING NET. 



The sport of trapping birds with 

 the " shaou-shaou " net has been 

 already described on p. 84. A 

 specimen of a small one (fig. 44) 

 which I purchased on Funafuti 

 measured eighteen by fourteen 

 inches across the mouth. Some 

 nets I saw employed were twice 

 as large. The hoop is constructed 

 by crossing and lashing to the pole 

 the thick ends of two slender 

 flexible twigs, a yard in length. 

 The tips of these were crossed, 

 bent over one upon the other, 

 and thrice lashed. As in the 

 preceeding form, the hoop is 

 secured to the handle by a T-piece. 

 The bag is eighteen inches deep, 



is of large four-inch mesh, and is attached to the hoop by the 



process of reeving the frame through each alternate mesh. 



The natives of the Gilbert Group amuse themselves by catching 

 Frigate-birds (vide 86) by flinging over them a stone and line. 

 Dr. Finsch has given a vivid description of bird lassoing as 

 practised by the Pleasant Islanders, f 



RAT TRAP. 



Before the advent of Europeans, and the introduction of the 

 cat, the natives were greatly plagued by swarms of the Pacific 

 Rat, Mus exulans. From time to time, when the pest grew beyond 

 endurance, it was the custom of the king to order that at a given 

 time each villager should bring to him a tale of say a hundred 

 rats. For their destruction an ingenious trap was employed 

 which has now disappeared, but which I am enabled to study 

 through a model made for me by one of the oldest inhabitants. 

 In obedience to the order, the rat traps would be repaired and 

 set, every man, woman, and child taking charge of one or more. 



* Finsch Zoc. cit., p. 56, fig. 4. 



t Finsch The Ibis, 1881, p. 248 ; also Ann. K. K. Naturhist. Hofmus., 

 1893, viii., p. 35. 



Fig. 44. 



