ho, while their passion
lasted, fell into their hands. Although they could not be said to live
under a regular form of government, there was a certain subordination
established among them, not unlike that of European nations under the
feudal system.

Their tools were few and rude: an adze of stone, a chisel or gouge of
bone--generally that of a man's arm between the wrist and elbow--a rasp
of coral, and the sting of a sting-ray, with coral sand as a file or
polisher. With these tools they built their houses and canoes, hewed
stone, and felled, clove, carved, and polished timber. Their axes were
of different sizes, but even with the largest it took them several days
to cut down a tree. The canoes were often large, and constructed with
great labour and ingenuity. They were of two builds: one, the _Ivaha_,
for short excursions, was wall-sided, with a flat bottom; the other, the
_Pahie_, for longer voyages, was bow-sided, with a sharp bottom. There
was the fighting Ivaha, the fishing Ivaha, and the travelling Ivaha.
The fighting Ivaha was the largest; the head and stern were raised
sometimes seventeen feet or more above the sides, which were only three
feet out of the water. Two of these vessels were always secured
together by strong poles about three feet apart. Towards the head a
platform was raised, about twelve feet long, wider than the boats, and
on this platform stood the fighting men, armed with slings and spears;
for they did not use their bows and arrows except for amusement. Below
the stage the rowers sat with reserved men, who supplied the place of
those that were wounded. Some of their war canoes had stages or decks
from one end to the other. The fighting Pahie was often sixty feet
long, and two were also joined together, with a large platform above
them. One measured by Captain Cook was, though sixty feet long, only
one foot and a half at the gunwale, with flat sides; then it abruptly
widened out to three feet, and narrowed again to the keel. The double
canoes were sometimes out a month together, going from island to island.
Some carried one, some two masts, with sails of matting, of
shoulder-of-mutton shape. The bottom of a large Pahie was formed of
three or more trunks of trees secured together and hollowed out, above
this flooring were the sides of plank, two inches thick, and about
fifteen inches broad; and then there were the upper works, hollowed out
of trunks of trees like the bottom. Some