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PORTER’S JOURNAL*: 
a woman, with moderate labour, will in one day make for her* 
self outer garments to last her six weeks. If the garment should 
be torn in wearing or by any accident, it is only necessary to wet 
the edges of the rent, and gently beat the parts together. They are 
entirely unacquainted with the use of the needle; this simple mode 
of repairing their dresses does not require it, nor is it requisite in 
their formation, as each piece of their clothing consists of square 
pieces. 
In the manufacturing of whales’ teeth into ear rings, pearl 
shells into fish hooks, and, indeed, in the working of all kinds of 
shells, bone, and ivory, a piece of iron hoop for a saw, and some 
sand and coral rock are their only implements; the iron hoop is 
used with sand, without being notched, in the manner that our 
stone cutters cut their slabs, and the coral serves to give them a 
polish; the same tools, with the addition of a tokay , which has al¬ 
ready been described, are amployed in the formation of their 
spears, war-clubs, coffins, cradles, and their various household 
utensils. Before the introduction of iron sharks’ teeth were used for 
saws, and a kind of stone adze supplied the place of the iron to- 
kay , and, indeed the attachment for stone tools is now so great that 
many prefer them to iron. I have frequently seen them throw 
aside a hatchet, and make use of a sharp stone to cut down small 
trees, sharpen stakes, &c. 
I inquired of Gattanewa when iron was first introduced on the 
island; he informed me, that many years after Haii brought them 
hogs, some people of the same colour as themselves (but not tat- 
tooed) having long black hair, came in a vessel with two masts, 
and anchored in a bay called Anahoo, on the other side of the 
island, and brought with them some nails, which they exchanged 
for hogs and fruit. The nails were so highly esteemed and found 
so useful that the natives flocked from all parts to have holes bor¬ 
ed through shells and other hard substances, and gave the propri¬ 
etors of them a hog each for the use of a nail a few hours. 
Their coffins are dug out of a solid piece of white wood, in 
the manner of a trough, the size of it is just sufficient to cram the 
body in, and it is polished and otherwise finished in a style which 
proves they pay a great respect to the remains of their friends. 
When a person dies, the body is deposited in a coffin, and 8 
