PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
143 
as they never brought any of them to us for sale, and frequently deceived CHAP. 
Us with empty cocoa-nuts. 
Their method of procuring fish is by lines and nets, and a con- jan. 
trivance still resorted to in Otaheite, consisting of casting into the sea 
a great many branches of the cocoa-nut tree, and other boughs, tied 
together, and allowing them to remain some time, during which the 
small fish become entangled, and are dragged out with them. The nets 
and lines, as well as cord, sinnet, &c., are all made from the bark of the 
porou, as in all the islands of Polynesia. One net which we measured 
U’as ninety feet in length. In the manufacture of these, they display a 
greater proficiency than in their cloth, which is much inferior to that at 
Pitcairn Island or Otaheite. Their implements for this purpose are 
the same in shape as those at the above-mentioned places ; but the 
one which we got differed in not being grooved. 
Their weapons consist of spears, and a staff flattened at the end 
hke a whale-lance : they are made of a hard wood, and highly polished. 
The spears were headed with bone, or the sting rays of the raia (pcis- 
^inea ) ; sl custom which once existed at Otaheite, and now extends to 
many of the low islands. The antiquity of this practice is traced to 
Very remote periods, as it is said that the head of the spear presented 
hy Circe to Telegonus, and with which he unceremoniously slew his 
father Ulysses, was of this kind. At Gambier Island they remove the 
heads of the spears when not required, a square piece being left at the 
end of the staff to receive it. Besides these weapons, they always carry 
large sticks. 
Contrary to the general custom, no canoes are seen at Gambier 
Islands, but rafts or katamarans are used instead. They are from forty 
fo fifty feet in length, and will contain upwards of twenty persons. 
They consist of the trunks of trees fastened together by rope and cross- 
beams : upon this a triangular sail is hoisted, supported by two poles 
from each end ; but it is only used when the wind is very favourable ; 
^t which time, if two or three katamarans happen to be going the same 
'^ay, they fasten on and perform their voyage together. At other times 
fhey use very large paddles made of a dark hard wood, capable of a 
