(head men) as being too dangerous on account of the sharks,
and so usually from ten to twenty canoes set out together. If one did
come to grief through being swamped, or capsized by having the outrigger
fouled by a shark, there was always assistance near at hand, and it
rarely happened that any of the crew were bitten. In 1872, however, a
fearful tragedy occurred on the Tia Kau, when a party of seventy
natives--men, women, and children--who were crossing to the neighbouring
Island of Nanomea, were attacked by sharks when overtaken on the reef by
a squall at night. Only two escaped to tell the tale.[14]

If, however, we meant to try for _takuo_, a huge variety of the
mackerel-tribe, or _lahe'u_, a magnificent bream-shaped fish, we had no
need to go so far as the dangerous Tia Kau; three or four cable-lengths
from the beach, and right in front of the village, we could lie in water
as smooth as glass, and seventy fathoms in depth. Our bait was
invariably flying-fish, freshly caught, or the tentacles of an octopus.
My lines were of white American cotton, and I generally used two hooks,
one below and one above the sinker, both baited with a whole
flying-fish, while my companions preferred wooden or iron hooks, of
their own manufacture, and lines made from hibiscus bark or coconut
fibre.

I shall always remember with pleasure my first _lahe'u_. I was
accompanied by the native teacher alone, and we paddled off from the
village just after evening service, and brought to about a quarter of a
mile outside the reef. The rest of the islanders had gone round in
their canoes to the weather side of the little island to fish for
_takuo_, for we were expecting a _malaga_, or party of visitors from the
Island of Nukufetau in a day or two, and unusual supplies of fish had to
be obtained, to sustain, not only the island's record as the fishing
centre of the universe, but the people's reputation for hospitality. It
had been my suggestion to the teacher that he and I, who were unable to
accompany the others, should try what we could do nearer home. The night
was brilliantly starlight, and the sea as smooth as glass--so smooth
that there was not even the faintest swell upon the reef. The trade wind
was at rest, and not the faintest breath of air moved the foliage of the
coco palms lining the white strip of beach. Now and then a splash or a
sudden commotion in the water around us would denote that some hapless
flying-fish had taken an aerial