The Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu (Oahu), Hawaii) 1840-1841, 1840-10-03
have mats so placed all round as to let
down or draw up at pleasure.
CANOE BUILDING.

CANOE BUILDING.
This also is a distinct trade, and one
in which no little skill is displayed even
more than in house building. Their fish
ing canoes, indeed, are only a single tree,
scoopcd out, to which an out-riggcr is at
tachcd sufficient to balance them. OF
the large double canoes, such as arc in
use at the FIJI and Tonga Islands, they
have but few. The canoes treated of in
this section are single ones, of forty to six
ty feet long, but narrow, fitted to carry
from eight or ten to sixteen persons.
They consist of several planks Of wood,
so neatly fitted and scwcd together, with
cnctt and ccmcntod as to be water proof.
The men who work them sit two abreast,
one padding on each side and they are
seldom made larger than can be worked
by thirteen men, the odd one being the
hclmsman, who only differs from the rest
in having the after seat to himself, and a
larger paddle.
None of the worl; appears on the out
side that is so neat and, smooth that,
until you look narrowly, you imagine the
canoe has been carved out of an entire
block. The shape is that of an elegant
very long but very narrow boat. When
you look inside YOU see that at the edge
of each plank of wood there is ledge
or projection fitted to a correspondent one
in the adjoining plank, and that these
lodges are literally sewcd together. But
first species of gum which oozes from
the bark of the bread fruit tree when cut,
is used to render the joints more compact
and water tight. At is admirable to see
these men accomplish all this with only a
few small adze-shaped tools and gimlct,
or what by patient labor accomplishes the
work of gimlct Before they obtained
iron tools they used to effect all this by
AIDES made of hard stone and by bones
of fish, &c.
The out-riggcr is not of difficult con-
struction, but its weight and extent should
be so constructed as to balance the canoe
without materially hindcring its speed.
The sail is eight or ten feet high, broad
at top, and tapcring to point at bottom !:
perhaps 50 made in order not to incom-
mode the men padding. 1t is made of
mats. When it is in use, and the wind
a side one, no little skill and presence of
mind are required to balance the canoe.
This is done by projecting a piece of
wood, strong enough to sustain mans
weight, on the side of the canoe opposite
to the out-riggcr. This is called the sua-
Ii. 1t is watched by one man and the
out-rigger by another, and their weight is
thrown upon either, as the force of the
wind and action of the sea require
MANUFACTURE OF MATS, CLoTH, &c.
This is the work of the women. They
make various sorts of mats some, of the
strong leaf of the pandanus, in nearly its
full breadth for spreading on floors; some
of the same leaf, split into smaller shrcds
for sleeping upon. These are generally
six or seven feet long and three or four
wide. They wear long time. A much
finer mat, the weaving of which will oc-
cupy woman twelve or eighteen months,
is woven with the same leaf, slit into very
narrow pieces, which are made tough and
durable by being baked in an oven and