POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, 171 
seldom carrying more than two persons. The single 
maihi is only a neater kind of buhoe. 
The vaa motu, island-canoe, is generally a large, 
strong, single vessel, built for sailing, and principally 
used in distant voyages, from one island to another. 
In addition to the ordinary edge, or gunwale, of the 
canoe, planks, twelve or fifteen inches wide, are fastened 
along their sides, after the manner of wash-hoards in a 
European boat. The same are also added to double 
canoes, when employed on long voyages. A single 
vaa is never used without an outrigger, varying in 
size with the vessel; it is usually formed with a light 
spar of the hibiscus, or of the erythrina, which was 
highly prized as an ama, or outrigger, on account of its 
being both light and strong. This is always placed 
on the left side, and fastened to the canoe by two hori¬ 
zontal poles, from five to eight feet long; the front one 
is straight and firm, the other curved and elastic; it is 
so fixed, that the bark, when empty, does not float 
upright, being rather inclined to the left^ but, when 
sunk into the water, on being laden, &c. it is generally 
erect, while the outrigger, which is firmly and in¬ 
geniously fastened to the sides by repeated bands of 
strong cinet, floats on the surface. In addition to this, 
the island-canoes have a strong plank, twelve or fourteen 
feet long, fastened horizontally across the centre, in an 
inclined position, one end attached to the outrigger, and 
the other extending five or six feet over the opposite 
side, and perhaps elevated four or five feet above the sea. 
A small railing of rods is fastened along the sides of 
this plank, and it is designed to assist the navigators in 
balancing the keel, as a native takes his station on the 
one side or the other, to counteract the inclination which 
