ETHNOLOGY HEDLEY. 



279 



These periodical battues were a source of great amusement, none 

 went to sleep till his or her score was complete, for from the trap 

 of any one caught napping the rats were merrily picked. 



The model of the trap 

 "tugimoa," which I ob- 

 tained on Funafuti (fig. 

 45) weighs a pound. The 

 body of it consists of a 

 barrel eighteen inches in 

 length and two in dia- 

 meter, of soft white wood, 

 probably Hernandia; at 

 one end a chamber six 

 inches deep is excavated, 

 at the other the barrel is 

 narrowed to a wedge and 

 cut to a fork whose lower 

 limb projects beyond the 

 upper like a shark's tail. 

 To each prong of the fork 

 is separately bound the 

 butt of a resilient wand, 

 here termed the bow, 

 of probably Ehizophora 

 wood, twenty-eight in- 

 ches in length. About 

 half way along the barrel 

 a short cross-piece of 

 wood is lashed as a stand. 

 To prevent splitting, the 



barrel is again lashed with sinnet at the trap mouth. From the 

 slender end of the bow descends a fine sinnet cord, here termed 

 the bow-string. This bow-string is made fast to the bow about 

 six inches from the end, but when in service is carried along to 

 an inch from the end, and there made fast by a clove hitch ; when 

 not in use the bow is unstrung by slacking off and slipping down 

 the clove hitch. There are two perforations, three-quarters of an 

 inch apart, and one-eighth of an inch from the entrance, in the 

 roof of the chamber ; the bow-string is led in by one and out by 

 the other, and then knotted to prevent withdrawal. Six inches 

 from the barrel a slip of wood, the lever, two and a half inches 

 long is tied to the bow-string. In the chamber roof, in the median 

 line, there is also, at an inch from the entrance a sinnet loop 

 inserted, and at two and a quarter inches from the entrance, is 

 another perforation. 



To operate the trap, a bait of coconut kernel is placed on 

 the floor of the chamber, a wooden pin, thrust through the 



Fig. 45. 



