o-'o 



13b COOKS VOYAGE TO 31 ARCH, 



playing a hundred tricks, till the canoe was put to 

 rights again. 



Besides the amusements I have already mentioned, 

 the young children have one which was much played 

 at, and shewed no small degree of dexterity. They 

 take a short stick, with a peg sharpened at both ends, 

 running through one extremity of it, and extending 

 about an inch on each side ; and throwing up a ball 

 made of green leaves moulded together, and secured 

 with twine, they catch it on the point of the peg ; 

 and immediately throwing it up again from the peg, 

 they turn the stick round, and thus keep catching it 

 on each peg alternately, without missing it, for a 

 considerable time. They are not less expert at an- 

 other game of the same nature, tossing up in the air 

 and catching in their turns a number of these balls; 

 so that we frequently saw little children thus keep 

 in motion five at a time. With this latter play the 

 young people likewise divert themselves at the 

 Friendly Islands. 



The great resemblance which prevails in the mode 

 of agriculture and navigation amongst all the inhab- 

 itants of the South Sea islands, leaves me very little 

 to add on those heads. Captain Cook has already 

 described the figure of the canoes we saw at Atooi. 

 Those of the other islands were precisely the same ; 

 and the largest we saw was a double canoe belonging 

 toTerreeoboo, which measured seventy feet in length, 

 three and half in depth, and twelve in breadth ; and 

 each was hollowed out of one tree. 



The progress they have made in sculpture, their 

 skill in painting cloth and the manufacturing of 

 mats, have been all particularly described. The most 

 curious specimens of the former which we saw during 

 our second visit, are the bowls in which the chiefs 

 drink cam. These are usually about eight or ten 

 inches in diameter, perfectly round, and beautifully 

 polished. They are supported by three, and some- 



