Linton — Tlic Marquesas Island.<i 397 



APPARATUS USED IN FISHING 



The IMarquesans used four methods of fishing; poisoning, spearing, hook 

 and hue fishing, and net fishing. The first of these methods was by far the 

 simplest, but owing to the rugged nature of the coast there were few places in 

 which it could be profitably employed. Three substances were used; the fruit of 

 Barringfonia spcciosa, the flowers of TcpJirosia piscaforia. and the leaves and 

 young shoots of Rhyncosia punctata. (The use of Rhyncosia punctata may be 

 post-European.) The use of the Barringtonia appears to have been limited to 

 small pools in the rock; the fruit was split with a flake knife and rubbed on the 

 rocky sides of the pool, stupifying the fish and causing them to rise to the surface. 

 The Tephroisia and Rhyncosia were used for deep fishing. Holes or small caves 

 among the rocks were located by diving. A quantity of the crushed poison was 

 enclosed in leaves, forming a tight bundle, and with this the fisherman dived, 

 shaking the poison out into the caves. He then returned to the surface and waited 

 for the stupified fish to rise. 



FISH SPEARS 



Large fish, especially the giant ray (fafaita) were speared from canoes. The 

 spear was provided with a detachable head to which a line was attached. The 

 head was made of hard wood or bone, its upper end was cut with a jog which 

 rested against a corresponding jog on the end of the shaft, and was attached to 

 the shaft by light lashings. The form of this head can be seen from the accom- 

 panying photograph of a specimen in the United States National Museum (PI. 

 Lxx, C), although the carved decoration is unusual. 



Smaller fish were speared from the rocks with a many-pronged spear. 

 Only a general description of this implement was obtained, but one form called 

 viatavau (Handy) is said to have had twelve prongs attached to the shaft by 

 three rows of sennit binding. The natives also swam after certain species of 

 fish and speared them in the water, a practice still common in the Society 

 Islands and the Tuamotus. 



The spearing of fish from the rocks, and most of the net and hook fishing, 

 were carried on at night by the light of torches. These torches were of three 

 sorts; those made of sugar cane (now obsolete), of bamboo and of coconut 

 fronds. 



The sugar cane torches are said to have been made by tying up the leaves of a dry 

 stalk into a compact bundle. Coconut torches were made from a single dry palm frond. 

 Beginning at the tip, the leaflets were directed upward and tied by passing single leaflets around 

 the bundle at intervals of a foot or more. Such a torch when lit at the tip needed no tend- 

 ing, and would burn down gradually with a good light. Uamboo torches were made by 

 crusliing a long dry joint of bamboo, care being taken not to break it across. The scattered 

 fibers held the bunch of dry strips together without additional binding. This form is the one 

 most used at present for night fishing from canoes. 



[137] 



