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Samoan Material Culture

Cobwebs and Gorges

page 489

Cobwebs and Gorges

Methods of obtaining individual fish by the mouth consist of the use of cobwebs, gorges and hooks.

Cobwebs are collected on a forked stick. A length of four to six inches is loosely rolled and tied to a short line on a bamboo rod. The fish caught are a small garfish (ise). The rod is flicked about and the ise in biting at the cobwebs trailing along the surface has its teeth entangled sufficiently to allow of its being lifted out of the water. Sometimes it is difficult to disentangle the fish.

A gorge is a support for a bait, which the fish swallows and is unable to eject. At Tau, it was stated that before metal hooks were used, a piece of wood sharpened at each end and tied at the middle to a line was in vogue. The stick and line were placed in the same straight line and a bait impaled to totally conceal the stick. The bait was swallowed and on pulling the line, the wood got caught cross ways in the gullet of the fish. The only name thought of was matau la'au (wooden hook).

Figure 280.—Fish gorges in British Museum (from Beasley).

Figure 280.—Fish gorges in British Museum (from Beasley).

Beasley (1, p. 23) say, "This contrivance consists of a bulky hank of twisted fibre line (Pandanus?), to which is attached a sinker of water-worn coral (tufa) about 2 inches (5.1 cm.) across From this are two lines of fibre, each ending with sharply pointed wooden gorges 2.75 inches (7 cm.) in length, cut out of some pale wood, with very long bast strings attached."

A Savaiian expert said that an appliance was made of two pieces of wood, one long piece and a shorter piece tied loosely to it in such a way that when the line was pulled, the short piece crossed the other. He called it fa'amailei ato. The term ato here carries the meaning of a piece of wood sharpened at both ends while fa'amailei is to form like a trap.

Any doubt of the use of gorges is removed by the existence of actual page 490specimens duly attached to a line which exist in the British Museum. They were figured by Edge-Partington (10, vol. 2, p. 45) but his drawing gives the distinct impression that the gorges were attached to a float which in turn is attached to a line. Presumably the same gorges in the British Museum are later figured by Beasley (1, Pl. 37) and what looked like a float proves to be a sinker. (See figure 280.) Needless to say the line which Beasley (1, p. 23) queries as pandanus could not consist of that material as it was not used by the Samoans for cords or lines. It is a twisted line probably of fau songa. Gorges made of fish bone were also used as shown in the following description by Williams (43, p. 448) which was also quoted by Beasley.

But the most ingenious method of fishing which I saw at the Samoas was the following: a number of hollow floats, about eight inches in diameter, and of the same height, were attached to a strong cord, at a short distance from each other. To each of these a line was fastened, about ten inches long, at the end of which was a fish bone, made very sharp at both ends, and suspended by the middle; so that when the fish seized the bait, the bone pierced it in contrary directions, and thus secured the prey. The floats answered two purposes; to attract the fish by their whiteness, and to show when it was caught.