The alia is a double canoe and is described by Mr. Kennison, a boat-builder in Savai'i. "The bigger canoe of the two is sometimes as much as one hundred and fifty feet in length; each end tapers out to nothing; the second canoe is not nearly so long as the first. They sail fast, and like the Malay proas, do not go about in beating, but the sheet of the sail is shifted from bow to stern instead. There is a platform built between the two canoes, and both ends are decked over for some distance—on the platform a
Photo by Dr. B. Friedlaender.
The 'Alia, or Double Canoe of Samoa.
house[1] is usually erected. These double canoes will turn to windward very well. The canoes are built up of many slabs joined together Avith great neatness, and each plank is sewn to the next one with sinnet, which passes through holes bored in a raised edge on the inside of each plank." It was in this kind of canoe that the voyages of the Samoans and Tongans were made, and so far as can be ascertained, the pāi (Maori pahi) of the Rarotongans in
- ↑ Called in Rarotonga an orau, which is also the name of the shed in which the big canoes were kept on the beach. Cf: with orau, the Samoan folau, a ship; to go on a voyage; and Maori wharau, a shed; originally a canoe-shed; also Hawaiian halau a canoe-shed.
