COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF THE HAWAIIAIST ISLANDS. 725 



mouth closed up. It is then emptied into the canoe and the operation repeated until 

 the fish become shy. The opelu, when eaten raw, is said to prevent seasickness. 



The natives sometimes construct the above net from twine made from the bark of 

 the olona (Touchardia lati folia) bush or shrub, which grows in large shoots. These 

 are cut down and the bark stripped ofl: in bundles and put into running water, to pre- 

 vent fermentation and in order that the pulpy matter, etc. , may decompose. After 

 four or five days, or when it becomes thoroughlj^ clean, the bark is taken out and 

 spread on hard- wood boards 6 feet long and 8 or 10 inches wide. The wood used for 

 these boards — kauwila — is very scarce and valuable now. When the bark has been 

 thus spread the inside of it is carefully scraped by means of a bone 2^ inches wide 

 and 10 inches long, with one side beveled to an edge, and the perfectly clean 

 fiber is dried. It is then stripped into fine threads and twisted together by women, 

 who roll the strands on their bare thighs with their hands, making a cord that is 

 stronger than linen and will last for generations. 



For catching nehu (anchovies and silversides), very small fish much used for 

 bait and for food when dried, a bag net (upena nehu) is made from a piece of netting 

 about a fathom square, attached on two sides to sticks about 3 feet in length 

 and fulled in at the bottom on a rope shorter than the upper one and forming an 

 irregular square opening to a shallow bag, which is supplemented by a long, narrow 

 bag about 6 feet deep. Ropes hung with dried ki leaves are attached to each side of 

 the net, and these ropes are run around the school to drive the fish into the net. 

 Nehu fishing is generally carried on in deep water. 



A bag net (upena pua), made in the same manner, is used for catching very 

 young ama-ama (mullet). Instead of ropes with ki leaves, the "sea Co7ivolvuhis, 

 generally found growing on the beach, is twisted — leaves, branchlets, and all — into 

 two thick bushy ropes some 16 to 20 feet in length, and these are attached on each 

 side of the net to the kuku (side sticks). These lines are then drawn forward in 

 . a semicircle, sweeping the shoals of fry before them till enough are partly inclosed, 

 when the two free ends are rapidly drawn together in a circle, which is gi'&.dually 

 reduced till the fry are all driven into the bag." 



A bag net ver}^ similar to the above is used in fishing for ohua, a small fish very 

 highly prized by the natives, which lives in and on the limu kala, a coarse alga that 

 grows on coral in shallow water. Long ropes with dried ki leaves are employed, and 

 the method of operation is the same as already described. 



A bag net called kapuni nehu is also used in catching nehu. This bag is about 6 

 feet deep and 3 feet wide at the mouth, and two parallel sticks are used to keep the 

 mouth open. When a school of nehu is seen working its way along close inshore, 

 two men go out with the net, each holding one of the sticks. Others get in the rear 

 of aiid on the sides of the school and frighten the fish into the bag, after which the 

 sticks are brought together, thus closing the bag, which is then hauled ashore or put 

 into a canoe and emptied. These bags are of very fine mesh and are made of a 

 certain kind of Chinese netting, which is said to be exceedingly strong. 



A bag net called upena uhu is employed in catching the uhu, some highly prized 

 labroid fijshes, chiefly species of Calotomus. This is made of a square piece of netting 

 which has been gathered slightly on the ropes and attached at the four corners to 

 slender, strong sticks tied together at the middle in such way that they will cross 



