[45] The _bure_ or temple was the council chamber and town hall of the village. Strangers were entertained there and the head persons of the village often slept in it. As the best constructed building in the village it was elaborately decorated, the timbers and rafters being wrapped with sennit in various designs of red and black. Votive offerings such as clubs, huge rolls of sennit, whale’s teeth, strips of masi, a model of a temple made of sennit or parts of a victim slain in war, decorated the interior. [46] Sennit--a cord made of the fibre of the cocoanut husk, dried, combed and braided. The Fijians having no nails use this for all sorts of fastenings, lashings and wrappings in varied design. It is made in all sizes from a single strand to a cable and is of very considerable strength. [47] This statement seems to be somewhat exaggerated. One canoe has been recorded as one hundred feet in length. Wilkes says that the average large canoe was seventy feet in length and would conveniently carry fifty men. [48] _Yaquona_ of the Fijians, _kava_ of the Tongans and _awa_ of the Hawaiians, is an infusion of the root of the pepper plant (_Piper methysticum_). The root is first chewed or grated, after which the macerated mass is placed in a bowl and covered with water. The infusion is then strained through a fibre mesh and is ready to drink. It was used on occasions of ceremony or entertainment and its preparation was accompanied by a more or less elaborate ritual. It is used by the races in the Pacific who do not chew the betel nut. Its effects are intoxicating and narcotic. [49] Tapa cloth, _masi_ of the Fijians, _siapo_ of the Samoans, _kapa_ of the Hawaiians, was the substitute for cloth and paper. It was made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry (_Broussonetia papyrifera_). The plants were carefully cultivated and when about one inch in diameter were cut down and soaked in water. The bark was removed and beaten. Different pieces were joined together and beaten into one piece so that sheets of almost any size could be made. The finished masi was then decorated by printing or stencilling with dyes of red-brown and black. [50] One of the chief forms of mourning for the dead, in addition to wailing, was to lop off the little finger of one of the hands. Most of the older natives lost both little fingers. This was confined to the relatives of the deceased unless the latter was one of the highest chiefs when it was confined to the tribe. [51] Brig “Niagara” of Salem, 246 tons, built at Mount Desert in 1816. Owned by Putnam I. Farnham, Jed Fry and Peter S. Webster; commanded by Nathaniel Brown. Wrecked in Ambau Bay the same day as the “Glide.”