The Large Troiaing Hook

The tangi is a deep sea fish larger than the bonito. The hook as verbally described was said to be larger than a bonito hook. It was a composite hook made in two pieces and the point was lashed to the shank in exactly the same way as in the bonito hook. No complete pa tangi was seen and it is not figured by Beasley, Demandt, or Kramer. Mr. Judd (17, p. 61) secured a large shank (Pl. XLVII, B, 11) at Leone which the owner said was a pa tangi. The shank, made of lei (whale ivory) is long, with its widest part near the head pointed end, and narrows to the end which bears the point. The front has a flat surface for the attachment of the point, while towards the head, the two rounded sides meet in a median ridge which extends to a point. A transverse hole is bored through under the median ridge in the head part. The back, convex longitudinally and slightly so transversely, is covered with colored pearl shell, neatly fitted and lashed through two paired holes which meet in the body of the shank to allow the lashing to pass through. The paired holes are towards either end of the pearl shell plate. No point was obtained with the shank, but the owner stated that one made of niuvao hard wood had been attached when used by his grandfather.

Tongan hooks with identical shanks and barbed turtle shell points are well established. They are figured by Beasley (1, Pl. XXXVI) and a specimen in Bishop Museum is figured in Plate XLVII, B, 12.

The fact that the type of shank is not elsewhere recorded from Samoa throws serious doubts on the shank being native Samoan. Confirmation is required before it can be accepted as representing the pa tangi of Samoa. On the other hand I have no definite information as to what the Samoan pa tangi was like except that it was a trolling hook of larger size than the bonito hook.