THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 257 



holdin? it up, ffive a fmart {Iroke, till he brou;?ht it into an , \77^' 



° ' " " rsbruary. 



horizontal poiition, flriking with the foot, on the fame fide, 

 upon the ground, and, with his other hand, beating his 

 bread at the fame time. They play at bowls, with pieces 

 of the whetflone mentioned before, of about a pound weight, 

 fliaped fomewhat like a fmall cheefe, but rounded at the 

 fides and edges, which are very nicely polifhed ; and they 

 have other bowls of the fame fort, made of a heavy, red- 

 difli brown clay, neatly glazed over with a compofition of 

 the fame colour, or of a coarfe, dark grey flate. They alfo 

 ufe, in the manner that we throw quoits, fmall, flat, rounded 

 pieces of the writing flate, of the diameter of the bowls, but 

 fcarcely a quarter of an inch thick, alfa well poliflied. 

 From thefe circumftanccs, one would be induced to think, 

 that their games are rather trials of fl^ill than of flrength. 



In every thing manufactured by thefe people, there ap- 

 pears to be an uncommon degree of neatnefs and ingenuity. 

 Their cloth, which is the principal manufa(5ture, is made 

 from the morus papyrifera; and, doubtlefs, in the fame man- 

 ner as at Otaheite and Tongataboo ; for we bought fome of 

 the grooved Hicks, with which it is beaten. Its texture, how- 

 ever, though thicker, is rather inferior to chat of the cloth of 

 either of the other places ; but, in colouring or flaining it, the 

 people of Atooi difplay a fupcriority of tafte, by the endlefs 

 variation of figures which they execute. One w^ould fup- 

 pofe, on feeing a number of their pieces, that they had bor- 

 rowed their patterns from fome mercer's fhop, in which the 

 mofl elegant produ(5lions of China and Europe are collecfled ; 

 belides fome original patterns of their own. Their colours, 

 indeed, except the red, are not very bright ; but the regula- 

 rity of the figures and ftripes is truly fu prizing ; for, as far 

 as we knew, they have nothing like flamps or prints, 10 



make 



