were to stand him now in good stead

Tamanu (Calophyllum

inophyllum) is a large evergreen,

widely cultivated in all tropical

regions of the world, including

several Pacific Islands. Its wood

is hard and strong and has been

used in construction or

boatbuilding.

While his breakfast roasted in the coals, the boy cleared the brush away from the base of the great tamanu. There was no wood better for canoe building than this. It was tough, durable, yet buoyant in the water. Mafatu could fell his tree by fire and burn it out, too. Later he would grind an adze out of basalt for the finished work. The adze would take a long time, but he had made them often in Hikueru and he knew just how to go about it. The boy was beginning to realize that the hours he had spent fashioning utensils were to stand him now in good stead. Nets and knives and sharkline, implements and shell fishhooks – he knew how to make them all. How he had hated those tasks in Hikueru! He was quick and clever with his hands, and now he was grateful for the skill which was his.



An adze is a tool used for smoothing

or carving rough-cut wood in hand

woodworking. Adzes are most often

used for squaring up logs, or for

hollowing out timber.



Armstrong Sperry, Call It Courage, Simon and Schuster, 1940. Chapter 4