The tools used for hut-building and canoe-building are made of stone, shell, and iron, but there are very few of the real stone adzes to be found now, except in the museums, as the trade articles have taken their place and are in use all over the islands. Exactly the same kind of canoe is made here as in New Guinea, and the same methods of making it are adopted. The largest canoes are made in Malekula, from whence the natives go {177} long voyages to trade with other islands, and, I suppose, in the old days went hunting heads; some of the canoes are made out of the trunks of the bread-fruit trees. The poles supporting the outrigger are run through holes in the side of the canoe and lashed into position. There are no fine lines in the curves of these boats, they are roughly made and have very little decoration about them. The outrigger itself is just a heavy log of wood pointed at each end. The sails of the larger boats are now made of trade canvas, though they were originally made of matting. The rowers or paddlers sit in the boat upon the cross beams of the outrigger poles which pass through the gunwale. The steersman sits right aft, and can swing the boat round with marvellous rapidity. On Rano, a little island near Malekula, are three or four very fine specimens of large war canoes lying on the beach. I mention this, as it has been said by many writers, who have visited these parts, that the New Hebrides natives never possessed large canoes, whereas these are far larger than any in the Solomons, but, judging by their appearance, they have not been in use for ages and ages, nor can the natives there tell anything of their history. {178} There is, of course, a possibility that they may have been stranded there in a storm, but it is not likely, as the stern of one of them is protected by a shed, which looks as if it had always been its resting-place, also, the whole construction is of the Hebridean style. The larger of the two is considerably over thirty feet from stem to stern, and the bow rises up to a height of over ten feet, and is made of a solid dug-out log curved and tapering off to a point, where evidently a figure-head of some sort has been, but now only a rudimentary bird’s head remains, and suspended from the bird’s neck are a pair of boar’s jaws. The boat prow is ornamented and boxed and laced with sinnet. The depth inside allows more room than is usually found in like structures, and to get this depth the sides have been built up by lacing planks to each other in a curious and ingenious way. The crew to man one of them must have consisted of thirty or forty men at the very least. The stem of the canoe is a high peaked one, curving gently outwards and elaborately carved. The outrigger is an enormous log, and is attached in the ordinary way, though, of course, owing to its great size, nearly a dozen pegs help to keep the poles in position. [Illustration 60: OLD WAR CANOES, NEAR MALEKULA, NEW HEBRIDES] {179}