742 



BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



M itli hook and line, as no net would be strong enough to hold them. Shark hooks 

 are generally carved from a piece of hard wood, with a piece of sharp-pointed bone 

 lashed to the end of the hook to form the tip. But few of the hooks seem to ha^e a 

 barb, and it speaks well for the dexterity- of the fishermen that they succeed so well 

 in fishing with these. 



Sometimes the native seeks the shark in coves and caves below the surface after 

 the fish has gorged itself and is sleeping with its head forced into the sides of its 



Fig. 240.— Wooden shark hooks, with bone points. 



resting place. The diver gently slips a noose around the tail of the shark, which is 

 then hauled up and dispatched. Experts have been known to capture six or eight 

 .sharks in one day in this manner. 



In the olden times the catching of the niuhi was made a great event, but there 

 has lioen no regular fishery for it for nearly one hundred j-ears. The following 

 account of the manner of its capture is especially interesting:" 



The common kind of t^hark was caught in vast quantities, and the liver, with a httle of the flesh, 

 was wrapped in ki leaves and baked underground, then from fifty to a hundred of the largest single 

 and double canoes were loaded with baked meat and large quantities of the pounded roots of awa, 

 mixed with a little water, and contained in large gourds. The fleet would sail many miles out to sea 

 in the direction in which the niubi is known frequently to appear. Arrived at a comparatively shallow 

 place, the canoe containing the head fisherman and the priest and the sorcerer — who was supposed to 

 be indispensable — would cast anchor; meat and the baked liver would be thrown overboard, a few 

 bundles at a time, to attract sharks. After a few days the grease and scent of cooked meats wovild 

 spread through the water many miles in radius. The niuhi would almost always make its appearance 

 after the third or fourth day, when bundles of the baked meats were thrown as fast as it could swallow 

 them. After a while it would get comparatively tame and would come up to one or other of the 

 canoes to be fed. Bundles of the liver with the pounded awa would then be given to it, when it 

 would become not only satiated, but also stupefied with awa, and a noose was then slipped over its 

 head, and the fleet raised anchor and set sail for honie, the shark following a willing prisoner, the 

 peoi)le of the nearest canoes taking care to feed it on the same mixture from time to time. It was led 

 right into shallow water till it v:a.< straiided and then killed. Every part of its hone? and skin was 

 supposed to confer unflinching bravery on the possessor. The actual captor — that is, the one who 

 slipi)ed the noose over the niuhi's head — would also, ever after, be alway.s victorious. The shark's 

 natural home i.s, perhaps, in the warmer waters of the equator, as the (Gilbert Islanders, now here, 

 make the assertion that it is very frequently seen and captured at their group. The tradition here is 

 that it is only seen just after or during a heavy storm, when the disturbed waters perhaps drive it 

 away from its natural haunts. 



" Hawaiian Fi.'iherief and irethods of Pishing, with an .Account of the Fishing Implements used by the Natives of the 

 Hawaiian Islands. By Mrs. Emma Metcalf Beokley. 



