midnight
With a piece of tin she sawed off all her hair close to the scalp . Out of the hair she braided a cord ; and by means of the cord she lashed a three-foot piece of broom handle to a board from the salmon case . She gnawed wedges with her teeth and with them wedged the lashing . On the eighteenth day , at midnight , she launched the canoe through the surf and started back for Hikueru . She was an old woman . Hardship had stripped her fat from her till scarcely more than bones and skin and a few stringy muscles remained . The canoe was large and should have been paddled by three strong men .