NAVIGATION. 



199 



The intaglio carvings, coloured red and black, represent, according to my conviction, birds, 

 called murait, which are often joined, or meet in threes and fours, with the heads at an ornament 

 shaped as an angle, called sïrebàb, but otherwise unintelligible to me. The wings were called 

 pau, the triangles behind the eyes gaijâr. Sometimes the entire surface of the hull is carved 

 in this manner, but this, according to my expérience, is not seen in Netherl. territory outside 

 H. B.. Regarding Berlin Harbour, ERDWEG only mentions the coloured, uncarved ornament of 

 the side-boards; PARKINSON [1900, 32], however, does mention, from hère, carved figures on the 

 hulls of the lagoon crafts, like the women's boats without outriggers, and gives of thèse, tvvo 

 fine illustrations. FlNSCH [i8SS<\ PI. VII, fig. 2] takes the figures on the gunwales of the 

 craft of Attack Harbour to be fishes, as De Clercq (De Clercq and SCHMELTZ [1893, 94, 

 N°. 4.ÇI, PI. XXIV, fig. 6]) does, who considers the figures on the model, ivag, waga (= waché), 

 obtained by him in H. B., also to be fishes. On this model as well as on a similar one, 

 somewhat truer to nature, N°. 654, PI. XXII, fig. 11, a peculiarity may be noticed, which 

 pleads for the interprétation of "birds". For on the latter the figures are alternately repre- 

 sented with the wings stretched out backwards and forwards, something which cannot be 

 reconciled with the représentation of fins; on the model of De CLERCQ, the bird at the stern 

 has two pairs of wings in the forward, and one in the backward position. The usually orna- 

 mented side-boards or gunwales are (also in Oinâke) ne ver wanting, but according to FlNSCH 

 [1888, 336], [1888a, PI. VII, fig. 2], in Attack Harbour thèse boards are not lashed on, but 

 worked out of the trunk together with the boat. PARKINSON, who also visited Attack Har- 

 bour, only speaks [1900, 30] of boards lashed-on; so does HAGEN [1899, 218] concerning the 

 more eastern parts. 

 N°. 655 of Oinâke, a 

 toy for children, pos- 

 sesses no gunwales 

 lashed on. A good 

 jointure on the boats 

 is obtained by shar- 

 pening the edges of 

 the hull and providing 

 the lower part of the 

 side-boards with a cor- 

 responding groove; af- 

 terwards at several 

 places strong lashings 

 are applied, of reddish 

 brown liana, nâ, nâre, 

 or nàche, a material 

 which is much tougher 



than the strips of rattan, which, according to PARKINSON [1900, 30], are used in Berlin 

 Harbour; ERDWEG [1902, 365] however mentions a similar kind of liana used by the 

 neighbouring Tumleo. The caulking of the seams and holes is also an important part 

 of the technique of boat building; in H. B. a kind of elderbeny material, sut, is used for 



Fig. 129. Men's boat, wache of Humboldt Bay. 



