96 MANNERS A NDCUS TOMS OF 



or a large whale's tooth, hangs suspended on their breast. This pith 

 is thought by Mr. Rich, to be the same as that called Chinese paper 

 and obtained from the same plant. Long strings of beads or braided 

 hair are worn round the body, at times a hundred fathoms in length, 

 which serve to fasten the mat. The hair for this purpose is taken 

 from the female slaves, and is braided into a string about the size 

 of a packthread. The beads are manufactured by the old men who 

 are beyond doing any other labour, and are of the size of a small 

 button-mould ; they are made of cocoa-nut and shell, and strung 

 alternately black and white, being ground down to a uniform size and 

 fitted together for the purpose. 



The food of the natives consists principally of fish, from the whale 

 to the sea-slug; shell-fish of every kind are also eaten. 



Whales are represented to have been much more abundant formerly, 

 when they at times got aground on some of the numerous shoals, and 

 were killed by the natives with their spears. Even now a carcass 

 occasionally drifts on shore, which affords an acceptable prize. Sharks 

 are caught by enticing them alongside the canoe, with a bait, and 

 enclosing them in a noose. The smaller fish are taken in traps, like 

 eel-pots, made of withes : these the natives set on the bottom, and 

 place pieces of coral on them to keep them there. 



Great numbers of fish are also taken in weirs, or enclosures of stone, 

 which are made in the extensive coral flats, that are left bare by every 

 tide: into these the fish are driven at high water, by a number of 

 natives, who surround the shoal ; the weir is then closed, and left until 

 the tide falls, when the fish are easily taken in scoop-nets. Large 

 seines are often used in places where the bottom renders it practicable 

 to draw them. Flying-fish are taken in the daytime, by trailing a 

 hook, attached to a short line, from the' stern of a canoe. At night 

 they are caught in scoop-nets, as they fly towards a lighted torch, held 

 in a part of the canoe. Crabs are also decoyed out of their holes at 

 night, by torchlight, and captured. 



Turtles are taken in the season on the beaches ; and shell-fish, with 

 the sea-slug or biche de mar, are obtained on the reefs by diving. 



Their vegetable food consists of cocoa-nuts and pandanus, and a 

 variety of the taro, with a small quantity of the bread-fruit. The 

 preparation of these engages a great deal of their attention, and that 

 of the pandanus-nut in particular. When prepared, it is called kabul 

 and karapapa. The inner or edible portions of these nuts are sliced 

 off, and baked in an oven for several hours, till they are quite hard ; 

 they are then taken out, laid on a clean mat, and pounded with a 

 'arge pestle to the consistency of dough; this is spread out upon mats 



