ABSTRACT
The love of his canoe still amounts to a passion with the Gilbert Islander. It ranks second only to the feeling he has for his paternal lands. How highly a canoe was prized in the old days may be estimated by the single fact that it might sometimes be accepted as a forfeit in full settlement of a blood-feud. On the island of Abaiang there is an historic case on record, in which the timely gift of one of these craft prevented a sanguinary war; and again, on that atoll, it was a practice of the chieftains to give liberty and land to slaves who were expert in building and handling their racing craft. For the shipwright’s and the yachtsman’s arts were gifts of the gods, entitling a man to freedom and a competence.
