A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
In every expedient, indeed, for taking fish, they are exceedingly
ingenious; they make harpoons of cane, and point them with hard wood,
which, in their hands, strike fish more effectually than those which are
headed with iron can do in ours, setting aside the advantage of ours
being fastened to a line, so that the fish is secured if the hook takes
place, though it does not mortally wound him.
Of fish-hooks they have two sorts, admirably adapted in their
construction as well to the purpose they are to answer, as to the
materials of which they are made. One of these, which they call _witlee
witlee_, is used for towing. The shank is made of mother-of-pearl, the
most glossy that can be got; the inside, which is naturally the
brightest, is put behind. To these hooks a tuft of white dog's or hog's
hair is fixed, so as somewhat to resemble the tail of a fish; these
implements, therefore, are both hook and bait, and are used with a rod
of bamboo, and line of _erowa_. The fisher, to secure his success,
watches the flight of the birds which constantly attend the bonetas
when they swim in shoals, by which he directs his canoe, and when he has
the advantage of these guides, he seldom returns without a prize.
The other kind of hook is also made of mother-of-pearl, or some other
hard shell: They cannot make them bearded like our hooks; but, to effect
the same purpose, they make the point turn inwards. These are made of
all sizes, and used to catch various kinds of fish with great success.
The manner of making them is very simple, and every fisherman is his own
artificer: The shell is first cut into square pieces by the edge of
another shell, and wrought into a form corresponding with the outline of
the hook, by pieces of coral, which are sufficiently rough to perform
the office of a file; a hole is then bored in the middle; the drill
being no other than the first stone they pick up that has a sharp
corner; this they fix into the end of a piece of bamboo, and turn it
between the hands like a chocolate-mill; when the shell is perforated,
and the hole sufficiently wide, a small file of coral is introduced, by
the application of which the hook is in a short time completed, few
costing the artificer more time than a quarter of an hour.
Of their masonry, carving, and architecture, the reader has already
formed some idea from the account that has been given of the morais, or
repositories of the dead: The other most important article of building
and carving is their boats; and, perhaps, to fabricate one of their
principal vessels with their tools, is as great a work as to build a
British man-of-war with ours.
They have an adze of stone; a chissel, or gouge, of bone, generally that
of a man's arm between the wrist and elbow; a rasp of coral; and the
skin of a sting-ray, with coral sand, as a file or polisher.
This is a complete catalogue of their tools, and with these they build
houses, construct canoes, hew stone, and fell, cleave, carve, and polish
timber.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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