>Among the various homing or way-finding devices used by the interisland navigators are the stars, signs in the seas, land-indicating birds, and "charts." Stick charts from the Marshall Islands illustrate what might be called, for want of a better term, 'native' cartography. These charts are generally made of narrow strips of the center ribs of palm fronds lashed together with cord made from locally grown fiber plants. The arrangement of the sticks indicates the pattern of swells or wave masses caused by winds, rather than of currents, as was formerly thought to be the case. The positions of islands are marked approximately by shells (often cowries) or coral.
>...Distances between the various islands of the Marshall group are not great, but because they are low atolls, the island can only be seen from a few miles away from an outrigger canoe. To locate an island that is not visible, the navigator observes the relationship between the main waves, driven by the trade winds, and the secondary waves (reflecting or converging) resulting from the presence of an island. If a certain angle exists between the two sets of waves, a choppy interference pattern is established. When such a zone is reached, the canoe is placed parallel to this pattern with the prow in the direction of the waves of greater amplitude, which give a landward indication. These often complex wave patterns can be illustrated on the stick charts, which may be carried on the canoe. In addition, the navigators lie down in their craft to feel the effect of the waves.
>Three major types of charts are found in the Marshall Islands, namely rebbelib, meddo, and mattang. The rebbelib is a chart of a large part of the Marshall group, which contains of about thirty atolls and single islands over a distance of approximately six hundred sea miles northwest-southeast and about half that distance northeast-southwest. Although the spatial relationships between islands are only approximated on the stick charts, these locations can be recognized by referring to modern navigational charts of the area.
>The meddo is a sectional chart of part of the island group; it may be one of a series of charts, and its scale allows more detail to be sh
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