340 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES* 
shore. We found our double canoe very con¬ 
venient, for it had a pora , or stage, raised in the 
middle, which provided a comfortable seat, and 
also kept our packages above the spray of the sea. 
The pora is formed by tying slight poles to the 
iako, or cross pieces that connect the two canoes 
together, from the foremost iako to the one nearest 
the stem. The cross pieces are not straight, but 
bent like a bow, and form an arch between the 
two canoes, which raises the pora, or stage, at least 
two feet higher than the sides of the canoe. When 
the breeze sprang up, four of the men laid down 
their paddles, and attended to the sail, while one 
man sat in the stern of each canoe with a large 
paddle to steer. Our canoe, though made of 
heavy wood, was thin, and consequently light, 
and, as the wind increased, seemed at a rapid 
rate to skim along the tops of the waves; dashing 
through the crested foam with a degree of velocity 
which, but for the confidence we reposed in the 
skill and address of our pilots, would have excited 
no small degree of apprehension for our safety. 
The canoes of the Sandwich Islands appear 
eminently calculated for swiftness, being low, 
narrow, generally light, and drawing but little 
water. A canoe is always made out of a single 
tree; some of them are upwards of seventy feet 
long, one or two feet wide, and sometimes more 
than three feet deep, though in length they seldom 
exceed fifty feet. The body of the canoe is ge¬ 
nerally covered with a black paint, made by the 
natives with various earthy and vegetable materials, 
in which the bark, oil, and burnt nuts of the kukui 
tree are the principal ingredients On the upper 
edge of the canoe is sewed, in a remarkably neat 
manner, a small strip of hard white wood, from 
