THE   TAHITIANS


473


cation  of  which  the  hook  is  in  a  short  time  completed,
few  costing  the  artificer  more  time  than  a  quarter  of
an  hour.  From  the  bark  of  the  Poerou,  a  species  of
Hibiscus,  they  made  ropes  and  Hnes,  from  the  thickness
of  an  inch  to  the  size  of  a  small  pack-thread  ;  with
these  they  make  nets  for  fishing."  They  had  also  a
kind  of  seine  net,  made  "  of  a  coarse
broad  grass,  the  blades  of  which  are
like  flags  :  these  they  twist  and  tie
together  in  a  loose  manner,  till  the
net,  which  is  about  as  wide  as  a  large
sack,  is  from  sixty  to  eighty  fathoms
long  ;  this  they  haul  in  shoal-smooth
water,  and  its  own  weight  keeps  it  so
close  to  the  ground  that  scarcely  a
single  fish  can  escape."  They  also
use  certain  leaves  and  fruit  which,
when  thrown  into  the  water,  inebriate
the  fish  to  such  a  degree  that  they
might  be  caught  by  the  hands. ^  Thei  r
fishing-lines  were  made  of  the  bark
of  the  Erowa,  a  kind  of  nettle  which
grows  in  the  mountains,  and  were
described  as  "  the  best  fishing-lines
in  the  world,"  better  even  than  our
strongest  silk  lines.  They  also  used
the  fibres  of  the  cocoa-nut  for  mak-
ing threads,  with  which  they  fastened
together  the  various  parts  of  their
canoes.  They  were  very  dexterous  in  making  basket
and  wicker  work,  "  of  a  thousand  different  patterns,
many  of  them  exceedingly  neat "  ;  they  also  made  many
sorts  of  mats  from  rushes,  grass,  and  bark,  which  were
woven  with  great  neatness  and  regularity,  although  en-
tirely by  hand  and  without  any  loom  or  machinery."
But    their    principal   manufacture   was    a   kind    of    cloth,

*  Forster,   Observatiotis   jnade  dtcring   a    Voyage   round  the    World,
p.  463  ;  Ellis,  vol.  ii.  p.  288.
