282 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



platforms built out on each side there are frequently little houses 

 in which three or four of the crew can sleep.* 



"They actually make curious charts ['medo'] of thin strips of 

 wood tied together with fibres. Some of these charts indicate the 

 positions of the different islands with a surprising approach to 

 accuracy. Others give the direction of the prevailing winds and 

 currents. These are used as instruments to determine the course 

 to be steered, so as to take advantage of the wind and to allow 

 for current drift rather than as charts are used by us."f 



As the Ellice Islanders formerly fought with the Tongans and 

 traded with the Micronesians, they probably learnt arts of sea- 

 manship from friends and foes. Once Funafuti possessed large 

 ocean-going vessels," fouroua," in which cruises were made to Nui 

 and Vaitupu, but these, Mr. O'Brien told me, had disappeared for 

 more than twenty years. The existing canoes are only small craft, 

 fit but for fishing or for crossing the lagoon. The adventurous 

 spirit which prompted their ancestors to undertake exploring 

 voyages is still alive on the atoll, where there is hardly a man 

 who is not anxious to travel. On leaving, several of my native 

 friends begged me to take them to Fiji or Australia upon any 



On Fakaafu, Lister was " told that in the old times they had 

 two vessels each with two masts, and without outriggers 

 described as being as large as the trading schooners which visit 

 the island. Each of these would hold, it is said, all the available 

 fighting men in the island, perhaps a hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred men."j And Newell "had reliable evidence that until 

 recently there were planks ' two fathoms wide,' the remains of 

 one of these old island canoes to be seen on Fakaafu. " It was 

 probably in ships like these that the Rotumans used to visit 

 Vaitupu and Nui.|| 



A method by which the inter-island voyagers secured a beacon 

 for which to steer is thus described by Woodford : " When I was 

 at the island of Nukufetau, I was told that when they wanted to 

 communicate with the island of Oaitupu, they were in the habit 

 of making fires on the reef for two or three moonless nights in 

 succession, until they saw the glare in the sky from the answering 

 fires made by the natives of Oaitupu. As soon as the fires were 



* Finscli Ann. K. K. Naturhist. Hofmus., viii., 1893, pp. 160, 161, figs. 

 23, 24. 



t Bridge Proc. Eoy. Geogr. Soc., viii., 1886, p. 556. For figures see 

 Cat. Godeffroy Museum, 1881, pi. xxxii. ; and Journ. Polynesian Soc.,iv., 

 1895, pi. v., p. 236. 



Lister Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxi., 1892, p. 57. 



Newell Proc. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vi., 1895 (1896), p. 605. 



|| Dillon loc. tit., ii., p. 103. 



