166 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
along^ while the luggage was either placed in the hot- 
tom_, piled up against the stern^ or laid on the elevated 
stage between the two canoes. The heat of the sun 
-was extreme^ and we found that our rustic awning 
afforded a grateful shade. 
The rowers appeared to labour hard. Their paddles, 
being made of the tough wood of the hibiscus, were 
mot heavy; yet, having no pins in the sides of the 
canoe, against which the handles of the paddles could 
bear, but leaning . the whole body over the canoe, first 
on one side, and then on the other, and working the 
paddle with one hand near the blade, and the other 
at the upper end of the handle, and shovelling as it 
were the w’ater, appeared a great waste of strength. 
They often, however, paddle for a time with remarkable 
swiftness, keeping time with the greatest regularity. The 
steersman stands or sits in the stern, wdth a large paddle; 
the rowers sit in each canoe two or three feet apart, the 
leader sits next, the steersman gives the signal to start, 
by striking his paddle violently against the side of the 
canoe, every paddle is then put in and taken out of the 
water with every stroke at the same moment; and after 
they have thus continued on one side for five or six 
minutes, the leader strikes his paddle, and the rowers 
instantly and simultaneously turn to the other side, and 
.thus alternately working on each side of the canoe, they 
go along at a considerable rate. There is generally a 
■ good deal of striking the paddle when a chief leaves or 
; approaches the shore, and the effect pretty much resem¬ 
bles that of the smacking of the whip, or sounding of 
the horn, at the starting or arrival of a coach. 
The isolated situation of the islanders, and their 
.dependence on the sea for a large proportion of the 
