140 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the water when alarmed or pursued, are taken 
with facility. 
Among the reefs, and near the shore, many fish 
are seized by preparing an intoxicating mixture 
from the nuts of the hutu, betonica splendida , or 
the hora, another native plant. When the water 
is impregnated with these preparations, the fish 
come from their retreats in great numbers, float on 
the surface, and are easily caught. 
The favour of the gods was formerly considered 
essential to success in fishing. The gods of fisher¬ 
men were numerous, though Tamai or Tahaura and 
Teraimateti were the principal. Matatine, or Auta, 
was the deity of those who manufactured nets. 
Fishing nets were various ; all were remarkably 
well made, and carefully preserved. Their light 
casting-nets were used with great dexterity, generally 
as they walked along the beach. When a shoal of 
small fish appeared, they would throw the net 
with the right-hand, and enclose sometimes the 
greater part of them. The nets used in taking 
operu, or herrings, were exceedingly large, and 
generally made of the twisted bark of the hibiscus. 
Several nets were used at the same time, the 
meshes of the outside net being very large, and 
those within smaller, for the purpose of detaining 
the fish. This kind of fish visit the coasts in shoals 
at one or two seasons of the year only, and as they 
do not design their nets to last longer than one 
season, they are not very carefully prepared. 
Upea is the common name for net. The upea 
ava , or salmon net, is the most important, and is 
seldom possessed by any but the principal chiefs ; 
it is sometimes forty fathoms long, and twelve or 
more feet deep. One of this kind was made by 
Hautia, the governor of Huahine, soon after our 
