378 CANOES. MUSIC. 



The canoes resembled those of the Feegeeans, but are said 

 to have been scarcely so well built. To prepare the planks 

 was no easy task, but the great difficulty was to fasten them 

 together. This was effected by " strong thongs of plaiting, 

 which are passed several times through holes that are bored 

 with a gouge or auger of bone."* The length of the canoes 

 varied from ninety feet to ten, " but the breadth is by no 

 means in proportion ; for those of ten feet are about a foot 

 wide, and those of more than seventy are scarcely two."t 

 These larger ones were not, however, used singly, but were 

 fastened together side by side,, in the manner already de- 

 scribed. A canoe without an outrigger seemed to them an 

 impossibility. J The labor of constructing these canoes must 

 have been very great ; nevertheless,, the South Sea Islanders 

 possessed large numbers of them. Oil one occasion Captain 

 Cook saw more than three hundred in one place ; and, 

 without counting the smaller vessels,, he estimated the whole 

 naval force of the Society Islands at one thousand seven 

 hundred war canoes, manned by sixty-eight thousand men. 



Their principal musical instrument was the drum ; it was 

 made from a piece of solid wood y hollowed out, and covered over 

 with shark's skin. They had also a kind of trumpet made of 

 a large shell, with a hole at the small end into which they 

 fastened a bamboo cane about three feet long. Their flutes 

 were of bamboo, and were blown with the nose. They had 

 various kinds of games, some of which appeared to have 

 resembled our hockey and football. They were also very 

 fond of dancing. 



They were quite ignorant of pottery, but had large dishes 

 made of polished wood. The shells of cocoa-nuts were used 

 as water-bottles and cups. They were scraped thin, polished, 



* Cook's First Voyage, p. 225; J Ellis, I.e. vol. ii., p. 55. 



Forster, I.e. p. 459. Cook's Second Voyage, vol. i., 



t Cook's First Voyage, p. 221. p. 349. 



