156 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
cord, made with the fibres of the cocoa-nut husk. 
On the front end of the keel, a solid piece, cut 
out of the trunk of a tree, so contrived as to con* 
stitute the forepart of the canoe; was fixed with 
the same lashing; and on the upper part of it, a 
thick board or plank projected horizontally, in 
a line parallel with the surface of the water. This 
front piece, usually five or six feet long, and twelve 
or eighteen inches wide, was called the ihu vaa , 
nose of the canoe, and without any joining, com¬ 
prised the stem, bows, and bowsprit of the vessel. 
The sides of the canoe were composed of two 
lines of short plank, an inch and a half or two 
inches thick. The lowest line was convex on the 
outside, and nine or twelve inches broad; the 
upper one straight. The stern was considerably 
elevated, the keel was inclined upwards, and 
the lower part of the stern was pointed, while 
the upper part was flat, and nine or ten feet 
above the level of the sides. The whole was 
fastened together with cinet, not continued along 
the seams, but by two, or, at most, three holes 
made in each board, within an inch of each other, 
and corresponding holes made in the opposite 
piece, and the lacing passed through from one 
to the other. A space of nine inches or a foot was 
left, and then a similar set of holes made. The 
joints or seams were not grooved together, but the 
edge of one simply laid on that of the other, and 
fitted wich remarkable exactness by the adze of the 
workman, guided only by his eye: they never used 
line or rule. The edges of their planks were 
usually covered with a kind of pitch or gum from 
the bread-fruit tree, and a thin layer of cocoa-nut 
husk spread between them. The husk of the 
cocoa-nut swelling when in contact with water, 
