CANOE-BUILDING. 163 
they have two or three steering paddles, including 
a very large one, which they employ in stormy 
weather, to prevent the vessel from drifting to 
leeward. Temariotuu, the god of mariners and 
pilots, was stated to have made his rudder, or 
steering-paddle, from the sacred aito of Ruaro- 
roirai. The tataa, or scoop, with which they bale 
out the leakage, is generally a neat and convenient 
article, cut out of a solid piece of wood. Their 
canoes were formerly ornamented with streamers 
of various coloured cloths; and tufts of fringe and 
tassels of feathers were attached to the masts and 
sails, though they are now seldom used. A small 
kind of house or awning was erected in the centre, 
or attached to the stern, to skreen the passengers 
from the sun by day and the damp by night. The 
latter is still used, though the former is but seldom. 
seen. They do not appear ever to have orna- 
mented the body or hull of their vessels with 
carving or painting; but, notwithstandmeg this 
seeming deficiency, they had by no means an 
unfinished appearance. 
In building their vessels, all the parts were first 
accurately fitted to each other, the whole was taken 
to pieces, and the outside of each plank smoothed 
by rubbing it with a piece of coral and sand 
moistened with water; it was then dried, and 
polished with fine dry coral. The wood was gene- 
rally of a rich yellow colour, the cinet nearly the 
same, and a new well-built canoe is perhaps one 
of the best specimens of native skill, ingenuity, 
and perseverance, to be seen in the islands. Most 
of the natives can hollow out a buhoe, but it is 
only those who have been regularly trained to the 
work, that, can build a large canoe, and in this 
there is a considerable division of labour,—some 
M2 
