296 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



BOXES. 



The natives of Funafuti use carved wooden box-tubs to hold 

 food, fish-hooks, tobacco, or other small articles when on a canoe 

 journey or a fishing excursion. In travelling these are stowed 

 forward or aft under the decking, but when at anchor fishing, are 

 frequently hitched by the cord over a thwart within reach of the 

 fisherman. The lids with which these are fitted close so tightly 

 as to keep the contents dry even if the canoe be swamped with 

 water. The lid is so strung that it can be raised and slipped over 

 the box, but not entirely detached. In shape and size these box- 

 tubs have a general resemblance to the familiar " billy," of the 

 Australian bushman. 



Captain Hudson observed on Fakaafu : " Boxes or buckets of 

 various sizes, from the capacity of a gill to that of a gallon ; they 

 are cut out of the solid wood, and the top or lid is fitted in a neat 

 manner. These are used to keep their fish-hooks and other small 

 articles in to preserve them from the wet."* 



One of these box-tubs is figured with details by Edge-Partington 

 as from Samoa ; he writes of it : " Box and cover of pale wood, 

 stout plaited cord. Labelled, *a provision-tub, to be carried under 

 the canoe in the water,'"! which label is obviously absurd. There 

 are numerous references in literature to the wooden boxes of the 

 Polynesians, but I have not noted any other than the foregoing 

 sufficiently full to distinguish the type under discussion from other 

 forms of boxes, for example, the lavishly decorated caskets of the 

 Maoris, occuring in the Pacific. 



Three expressions of the box-tub were secured on Funafuti, 

 where the article is known as "tourouma." The largest specimen 

 in the collection weighs three pounds eight ounces, and has a 

 capacity of a hundred and forty-one cubic inches, stands seven 

 inches high, and is nine inches in basal diameter ; like the rest of 

 the series, it appears to be made of Calophyllum timber. In 

 general it so closely corresponds with the illustrations above-cited 

 from the Ethnographical Album that it is not necessary to draw it ; 

 from the Samoan specimen it differs in a less number of feet, 

 possessing but ten equally spaced triangular supports, of less 

 breadth than their interstices. 



The lid is secured in a particularly ingenious way, it is "rabbeted 

 on " so that the rim of the lid is outside flush with the wall of the 

 box and inside fits against the flange of the box. The latter 

 being slightly undercut, it is necessary to press the cover home. 

 The lid only shuts in one position, and when down can be more 

 securely fixed by slightly rotating it. The other specimens close 

 in a simpler manner, so that it is possible that the shutting 



* Wilkes loc. cit., v., p. 18. 



t Edge-Partington loc. cit., ii., pi. xl., fig. 8. 



