146 
POLYNESIAN "RESEARCHES. 
iron wood. In selecting a root for this purpose, 
they chose one partially exposed, and growing by 
the side of a bank, preferring such as were free 
from knots and other excrescences. The root 
was twisted into the shape they wished the future 
hook to assume, and allowed to grow till it had 
reached a size large enough to allow of the outside 
or soft parts being removed, and a sufficiency 
remaining to make the hook. Some hooks thus 
prepared are not much thicker than a quill, and 
perhaps three or four inches in length. Those 
used in taking sharks are formidable looking wea¬ 
pons ; I have seen some a foot or fifteen inches 
long, exclusive of the curvatures, and not less 
than an inch in diameter. They are such frightful 
things that no fish, less voracious than a shark, 
would approach them. In some, the marks of the 
shark’s teeth are numerous and deep, and indicate 
the effect with which they have been used. I do 
not think the Tahitians take as many sharks as the 
Sandwich Islanders do : they, however, seldom 
spare them when they come in their way; and 
though sharks are not eaten now, the natives 
formerly feasted on them with great zest. 
The shell, or shell and bone hooks, were curious 
and useful, and always answered the purpose of 
hook and bait; the small ones are made almost 
circular, and bent so as to resemble a worm, but 
the most common kind is the aviti, used in catch¬ 
ing dolphins, albicores, and bonitos; the shank of 
the hook is made with a piece of the mother-of- 
pearl shell, five or six inches long, and three- 
quarters of an inch wide, carefully cut, and finely 
polished, so as to resemble the body of a fish. On 
the concave side, a barb is fastened by a firm 
bandage of finely twisted romaha , or flax; the 
