POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
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were six or eight feet long^ a foot and a half wide, and 
twelve inches deep, these belonged only to the chiefs, 
and were used for the preparation of arrow-root, cocoa- 
nut milk, &c. on occasions of public festivity. The 
umetes in ordinary use were oval, about two or three 
feet long, eighteen inches wide, and of varied depth. 
They were supported by four feet, cut out of the same 
piece of wood, and serve not only for the preparation of 
their food, but as dishes, upon which it is placed when 
taken from the oven. 
The papahia is extensively used. It is a low solid 
block or stool, supported by four short legs, and 
smoothly polished on the top. It is cut out of one piece 
of wood, and is used instead of a mortar for pounding 
bread-fruit, plantains, or bruising taro | which is done by 
placing these upon the papahia, and beating them with a 
short stone pestle called a penu. This is usually made 
with a black sort of basalt, found chiefly in the island of 
Maurua, the most western of the group. The penu is 
sometimes constructed from a species of porous corah* 
The water used for washing their feet is kept in bottles 
called aano^ made from the shells of large and full-grown 
cocoa-nuts. That which they drink is contained in cala¬ 
bashes, which are much larger than any I ever saw used 
for the same purpose in the Sandwich Islands, but desti¬ 
tute of ornament. They are kept in nets of cinet, and 
suspended from some part of the dwelling. 
The drinking cups are made with the cocoa-nut shell 
after it is full grown, but before it is perfectly ripe. 
The shell is then soft, and is scraped until much thinner 
than a saucer, and frequently transparent. They are of 
* A fine specimen of that kind of penu which I procured at Rurutu, is 
deposited in the Missionary museum at Austin Friars. 
