617 



•streamers are sometimes attached to the top of the mast, and 

 in some cases the latter is ornamented with cassowary feathers. 



Each canoe has one mast and one sail (Deudeu). The sail 

 is constructed of matting ( Eha) made from a freshwater reed. 

 Narrow strips of this, about 40 cm. broad and 6-10 m. long, 

 are stitched together with the bark fibre of the Vctru tree — 

 the same bark as that from which the ropes are made — and 

 needles made of the wood of a palm (Goro). The characteristic 

 crab-claw form of the sail is conditioned by the convex form 

 of both spars and by the curved line of the upper rim of the 

 •sail. 



The boom (Itsfiu) and the yard, or gaff f Afana'ifsdu), 

 are composed of two or more poles of Koke wood, which is 

 very tough and elastic lashed together with thin Vdru ropes. 

 The ropes (in Mailu, Deudeii ora'ora) by which the sail is 

 hoisted pass through a hole in the top of the mast and are 

 made fast to an I ado at the base of the mast. Before hoisting 

 the sail the rope is moistened in order to make it run easily 

 through the mast hole. The sail is attached to the boom and 

 gaff by lashings placed about every 50 cm. The gaff, when 

 hoisted, comes to the top of the mast at about two-thirds of 

 its (the gaff's) length. Both boom and gaff are attached to 

 the bottom of the mast. The sheets (ropes holding the boom) 

 are tied to the boom at about its middle, and they pass to the 

 last rear Iddo of the Ldrimn. In moderately rough weather 

 they scandalize (Bddi poa) the sail by folding the bottom apex 

 of the triangular matting so that the top of the sail comes 

 much lower. In very rough weather they lower the sail, cast 



Fig. 33. a, Full sail; h, scandalized sail. 



it off from the boom and gaff ; then they highstop the task of 

 i:he sail, putting a short spar across its belly to spread it out. 



