IS 10.] HOOLITA. 371 



who can throw the furthest being considered the best pla\ 

 This last amusement, however, is giving place to bowline 

 allevs for winch have been erected at Honolulu, and some o! 

 the other seaports. 



The young people amuse themselves at a sort of see-sav 

 not dissimilar to that seen among us. A long pole is ex 

 t n led across a forked stick, planted upright, in the groui. 

 on either end of which two or three of the company place 

 themselves, and the great object is to see which party can 

 throw the other the soonest. 



One of the ancient sports was hooJua. or sliding down hill ; 

 and many of the natives are still as much attached to their 

 mode of " coasting," as was the young Albanian in days of 

 yore. The Sandwich Islander, of course, practiced his rec- 

 reation without the accessory of snow or ice; but, in its 

 I, he placed a thin layer of grass along a broad smooth 

 furrow made, down some steep declivity, and prolonged for a 

 short distance across the level ground at its foot. Light built, 

 and long, and narrow sleds, were used in this sport. Grasp- 

 ing his vehicle in his hands, the player planted himself a few 

 paces in rear of the starting point : then suddenly darting 

 forward at his utmost speed, as he reached the brow of the 

 slope he threw his sled forward, sprang headlong upon it, 

 and darted down the hill. This was once a very common 

 mode of gambling — the person who went the greatest dis- 

 tance the most frequently being considered the winner of the 

 game. 



When the missionaries first arrived in the islands, the 

 ancient custom of taboo, or tabu, was the law of the land. 

 It was the instrument of gross oppression and wrong; it had 

 reduced the common people to a state of abject servitude ; it 

 encouraged the gratification of every whim and caprice on 

 the part of the kings or chiefs ; it entered the lowest hut, and 

 restrained its occupant from the gratification of his simplest 

 wishes, as well as from indulgence in connubial pleasures ; 

 and, at the same time, it forbade the wife from eating with 

 her husband, in order that he might enjoy his amours with 



