THEv PACIFIC OCEAN. 147 



rocks, and, plunging under the wave, make the befl of -!7 79 i 

 their way back again. This is reckoned very difgraceful, ^- — «— -» 

 and is alfo attended with the lofs of the board, which I 

 have often feen, with great terror, dafhed to pieces, at the 

 very moment the iflander quitted it. The boldnefs and ad- 

 drefs, with which we faw them perform thefe difficult and 

 dangerous manoeuvres, was altogether aflonifhing, and is 

 fcarcely to be credited *. 



An accident, of which I was a near fpectator, fhews at 

 how early a period they are fo far familiarized to the water, 

 as both to lofe all fears of it, and to fet its dangers at de- 

 fiance. A canoe being overfet, in which was a woman with 

 her children, one of them an infant, who, I am convinced, 

 was not more than four years old, feemed highly delighted 

 with what had happened, fwimming about at its eafe, and / 



playing a hundred tricks, till the canoe was put to rights 

 again. 



Befides the amufements I have already mentioned, the 

 young children have one, which was much played at, and 

 Ihewed no fmall degree of dexterity. They take a fhort 

 flick, with a peg fharpened at both ends, running through 

 one extremity of it, and extending about an inch on each 

 fide; and throwing up a ball made of green leaves moulded 

 together, and fecured with twine, they catch it on the point 

 of the peg ; and immediately throwing it up again from the 

 peg, they turn the flick round, and thus keep catching 

 it on each peg alternately, without miffing it, for a confider- 

 able time. They are not lefs expert at another game of the 

 lame nature, tolling up in the air, and catching, in their 



* An amufement, fomewhat fimilar to this, at Otaheite, has been defcribed. 

 Vol. II. p. 150. 



U 2 turns, 



