742 
BULLETIN -OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
with 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 have 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 
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 eig'ht 
sharks in one da} r in this manner. 
In the olden times the catching of the niuhi was made a great event, but there 
has been no regular fishery for it for nearly one hundred years. The following 
account of the manner of its capture is especially interesting:" 
The common kind of shark was caught in vast quantities, and the liver, with a little 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 niuhi is known frequently to appear. Arrived at a comparatively shallow 
place, the canoe containing the head fisherman and the priest and the'sorc.erer — 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 dat's the grease and scent of cooked meats would 
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 home, the shark following a willing prisoner, the 
people 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 was stranded and then killed. Everjr part of its bones and skin was 
supposed to confer unflinching bravery on the possessor. The actual captor — that is, the one who 
slipped the noose over the niuhi’ s head — would also, ever after, be always victorious. The shark’s 
natural home is, 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. 
a Hawaiian Fisheries and Methods of Fishing, with an Account of the Fishing Implements used by the Natives of the 
Hawaiian Islands. By Mrs. Emma Metcalf Beckley. 
