, to answer the purpose of trumpets, to
blow now and then as the canoe passed along. It attracted the
attention of the villagers, and called them out to look and inquire,
"Who is that?" The ambition to see and to be seen was as common in
Polynesia as anywhere else. As the canoe approached any principal
settlement, or when it reached its destination, there was a special
too-too-too, or flourish of their shell trumpets, to herald its
approach. The paddlers at the same time struck up some lively chant,
and, as the canoe touched the beach, all was wound up with a united
shout, having more of the _yell_ in it, but the same in meaning as a
"hip, hip, hurrah!"

The French navigator Bougainville, seeing the Samoans so often moving
about in their canoes, named the group "The Navigators." A stranger in
the distance, judging from the name, may suppose that the Samoans are
noted among the Polynesians as enterprising navigators. This is not
the case. They are quite a domestic people, and rarely venture out of
sight of land. The group, however, is extensive, and gives them some
scope for travel. It numbers ten inhabited islands, and stretches east
and west about 200 miles. Within these bounds they have kept up an
intercourse from the earliest times in their history, which is fully
proved, not only by tradition, but by the uniformity of customs and
language which prevails from the one end of the group to the other.

CHAPTER XV.

ARTICLES OF MANUFACTURE.

_Fishing-nets_ of various kinds were in use, and were all manufactured
on the islands. Several of the Polynesian tribes excel in this branch
of industry. A captain of a ship of war, who was buying curiosities
lately at Savage Island, actually refused their fine small
fishing-nets, thinking that they must be articles of _European_
manufacture. In Samoa, net-making is the same now as it was of old. It
is the work of the women, and confined principally to the _inland_
villages. One would have thought that it would be the reverse, and
that the _coast_ districts would have made it their principal
business. The trade being confined to the interior, is probably
occasioned by its proximity to the raw material which abounds in the
bush, viz. the bark of the hibiscus, already referred to in describing
"fine mats."

After the rough outer surface of the bark has been scraped off with a
shell on a board, the remaining fibres are twisted with the mere palm
of the hand across the bare