POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
365 
The bread-fruit^ the plantain^ and almost every other 
tree furnishing any valuable fruity arrives at perfec¬ 
tion only in the most fertile soil 3 but the cocoa- 
nutj although it will grow in the rich bottoms of the 
valleys, and by the side of the streams that flow through 
them, yet flourishes equally on the barren sea-beach, amid 
fragments of coral and sand, where its roots are washed by 
every rising tide; and on the sun-burnt sides of the 
mountains, where the soil is shallow, and remote from 
the streams so favourable to vegetation. The trunk of 
the tree is used for a variety of purposes: their best 
spears were made with cocoa-nut wood 5 wall plates, 
rafters, and pillars for their larger houses, were often of 
the same material; their instrument for splitting bread¬ 
fruit, their rollers for their canoes, and also their most 
durable fences, were made with its trunk. It is also a 
valuable kind of fuel, and makes excellent charcoal. 
The timber is not the only valuable article the cocoa- 
nut tree furnishes. The leaves, called niau^ are composed 
of strong stalks twelve or fifteen feet long. A number 
of long narrow pointed leaflets are ranged alternately 
on opposite sides. The leaflets are often plaited, when 
the whole leaf is called paua^ and forms an excellent 
skreen for the sides of their houses, or covering for their 
floors. Several kinds of baskets are also made with the 
leaves, one of which, called arairi^ is neat, convenient, and 
durable. They were also plaited for bonnets or shades 
for the forehead and eyes, and were worn by both sexes. 
In many of their religious ceremonies they were used, 
and the niau, or leaf, was also an emblem of authority, 
and was sent by the chief to his dependents, when any 
requisition was made: bunches or strings of the leaf¬ 
lets were also suspended in the temple on certain occa- 
