FISHING PARTIES--MODE OF DISTRIBUTING THE FISH--MIDNIGHT BANQUET--TIME-KEEPING TAPERS--UNCEREMONIOUS STYLE OF EATING THE FISH THERE was no instance in which the social and kindly dispositions of the Typees were more forcibly evinced than in the manner the conducted their great fishing parties.

Four times during my stay in the valley the young men assembled near the full of the moon, and went together on these excursions.

As they were generally absent about forty-eight hours, I was led to believe that they went out towards the open sea, some distance from the bay.

The Polynesians seldom use a hook and line, almost always employing large well-made nets, most ingeniously fabricated from the twisted fibres of a certain bark.

I examined several of them which had been spread to dry upon the beach at Nukuheva.