Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/91

 INDrSTKIAL PRODUCE, ETC. 67 length from the upper end, and passed over the top of the mast, which has generally a crescent form. The great sail is allowed to swing a few feet from the deck, or to lie upon it, until orders are given to get under way. The yard is now hoisted hard up to the mast-head ; but, as the length of the yard from the halyards to the tack is longer than the mast, the latter is slacked off so as to incline to that end of the canoe to which the tack is fixed, thus forminor with the lower length of the yard a triangle, of which the line of deck is the base. The ends of MAST-HEADS, PILASTERS, ETC. the deck-beams on the cama side serve for belaying pins on which a turn of the halyards is taken, the loose ends being passed around the " dog," or belaying pole. The steersman, holding a long oar, stands nearly on a line with the tack on the far edge of the main-deck, while in the opposite corner is the man who tends the sheet. The sheet is bent on the boom about two-thirds up, and, by giving it a couple of turns on a beam, one man can hold it even in a breeze. Like the feluc- ca of the Mediterranean, the helm is used at either end, and, on tacking, it is put up instead of down, that the outrigger may be kept to wind- ward : the wind being brought aft, the tack is carried to the other end, which is thus changed from stern to bow, the mast being slacked back again to suit the change ; the helmsman and sheetholder change places, and the canoe starts on her new track. Unless the outrigger be kept to the weather side, the canoe must be swamped ; for, so soon as it gets to lee^Yard, the wind drives the sail against the mast, and the cama is forced under water. If the man at the sheet does not slack away