ge 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.

The stone which makes the blade of their adzes is a kind of basaltes, of
a blackish or grey colour, not very hard, but of considerable toughness:
They are formed of different sizes; some, that are intended for felling,
weigh from six to eight pounds; others, that are used for carving, not
more than so many ounces; but it is necessary to sharpen both almost
every minute; for which purpose, a stone and a cocoa-nut shell full of
water are always at hand.

Their greatest exploit, to which these tools are less equal than to any
other, is felling a tree: This requires many hands, and the constant
labour of several days. W