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[Page 450]

Manners & Customs of the S. Sea Islands

Yet they love much to have carvd work & figures stuck about their canoes the great ones especialy which generaly have a figure of a man at the head & another at the stern of them Their marai's also are ornamented with different kinds of figures one sort of which represent many men standing on Each others heads they have also the figures of animals & Planks whose faces are carvd in patterns of squares & circles &c. but every part of their carving is in an equaly bad taste all their work however acquires a certain neatness in the finishing for they polish every thing even the side of a canoe or a Post of a house with Coral sand rubbd on in the outer husk of a Cocoa nut & rays skin which makes them very smooth & neat

Their Boats all at least that I have seen of them may properly be divided into two general classes The first which are calld by the natives Ivahah are the only sort which are usd at Otahite they serve for fishing, & for short trips to sea but do not at all seem calculated for long ones The others again which are calld Pahei & are usd by the inhabitants of the Societies Isles viz. Ulhietea Bola Bola Huaheine &c. are rather too clumsey for fishing

 

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