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 thigh into a strong whip-cord, or finer
twine, according to the size of the meshes of the net. As the good
lady's cord lengthens, she fills her netting-needle, and when that is
full, works it into her net. Their wooden netting-needles are exactly
the same in form as those in common use in Europe. One evening, in
taking a walk, Mrs. Turner and I stood for a few minutes and looked at
a woman working a net. Mrs. Turner begged to be allowed to do a bit,
took the needle, and did a few loops, to the no small amazement of the
woman, who wondered how a European lady could know how to handle a
_Samoan_ netting-needle, and do _Samoan_ work.

They make nets of all sizes, from the small one of eighteen inches
square to the seine of a hundred feet long. A net forty feet long and
twelve feet deep can be had for native mats, or white calico, to the
value of twenty shillings. A hundred men may be able to muster some
twenty nets. These they unite together, and, in the lagoon off their
settlement, take large quantities of mullet and other fish.

_The pearl-shell fish-hook_ is another article long in use, and in the
manufacture of which the Samoans show some ingenuity. They cut a strip
off the shell, from two to three inches long, and rub it smooth on a
stone, so as to resemble a small fish. On the under side, or what may
be called the belly, of this little mock fish, they fasten a hook made
of tortoise-shell, or, it may be, nowadays, an English steel one.
Alongside of the hook, concealing its point, and in imitation of the
fins of a little fish, they fasten two small white feathers. Without
any bait, this pearl-shell contrivance is cast adrift at the stern of
a canoe, with a line of twenty feet, and from its striking resemblance