at last consented to
save his life, and felt much better.

Presently the women announced that the ovens were ready to be opened. As
soon as the fish were counted, and the rain having ceased, we all
gathered round the canoes and watched each one emptied of its load. As I
imagined, our party had taken the most fish, and not only the most, but
the heaviest as well. Mareko added to my blushing honours by informing
the company that as a fisherman and a knowledgable man generally I
justified his brother minister's opinion and would prove an acquisition
to the community. We then inspected the first eel caught, and a truly
huge creature it was, quite nine feet in length, and in girth at its
thickest part, as near as I could guess with a piece of line, thirty
inches. The line with which it was caught was made of new four-stranded
coir-cinnet, as thick as a stout lead pencil, and the hook a piece of
3/6 or 1/2 inch iron with a 6-inch shank, once used as a fish spear,
without a barb! The natives seemed much pleased at the interest
displayed, and told me that sometimes these eels grew to _elua gafa_
(_i.e._, two fathoms), but were seldom caught, and asked me if I had
tackle strong enough for such. Later on I showed them a 27-stranded
American cotton line 100 fathoms long, with a 4-inch hook, curved in the
shank, as thick as a pencil, and "eyed" for a twisted wire snooding.
They had never seen such beautiful tackle before, and were loud in their
expressions of admiration, but thought the line too thin for a very
heavy fish. I told them that at Nanomaga I had caught _palu_ (a
nocturnal feeding fish of great size) in over sixty fathoms with that
same line.

"That is true," said one of them politely, "we were told that you and
Tiaki (one Jack O'Brien, an old trader) of Funafuti have caught many
_palu_ with your long lines; but the _palu_ is a weak fish even when he
is a fathom long. And as he comes up he grows weaker and weaker, and
sometimes he bursts open when he comes to the surface. Now if a big
eel--an eel two fathoms long--"

"If he was three fathoms long he could not break this line," I replied
positively.

They laughed and told me that when I hooked even a small eel, one half a
fathom in length, I would change my opinion.

Soon after our midday meal was over, and we were preparing to return to
our fishing-ground with an ample supply of fresh bait, the sky to
windward became black and threatening, and through the breaks i