MICRONESIA. 69 



excessive and debilitating. The following order of daily avocations 

 is pretty regularly observed. 



When they rise in the morning, which is commonly before the sun, 

 the men first repair to the mbure (town-house or temple) to drink 

 kava. They either wash themselves all over, or at least rinse their 

 mouths, before they join in the drinking. They then go to their 

 plantations of yams and taro, or to any other work in which they may 

 be engaged, and remain there until the sun becomes too hot for com- 

 fort, when they return home and take their first meal, called katalau ; 

 this is usually about nine or ten o'clock. During the heat of the day 

 they lounge about, doing light jobs, talking or sleeping. Towards 

 night, if they feel industrious, they return to their plantations. Other- 

 wise they dress in a clean girdle, wash and oil themselves, powder 

 their hair with ashes, and stroll about the village, chatting with their 

 friends until the dusk of the evening, which is the usual time of 

 retiring. 



Sometimes in the afternoon they repair to the rara ni meke, public 

 place for dancing, and join in a dance ; or to the rara ni tingga, 

 place of games, which is an oblong level space, two hundred yards 

 long by ten wide, where they play at the game called tingga, some- 

 thing between quoits and cricket. It is played by two parties, one 

 against the other. The implement used is a stiff reed, between three 

 and four feet long, having on its head a heavy knob of iron-wood. 

 This is darted head foremost, from one end of the rara towards the 

 other, the object being to throw it to the greatest possible distance. 

 It is not sent all the way through the air, but slides and bounds along 

 the ground. The game is a very exciting one. Several towns some- 

 times engage in it at once, the vanquished of one day being bound to 

 find provisions for the next. The passions of the combatants are 

 sometimes wrought up so highly that quarrels and bloodshed ensue. 

 A good player, (ndau-tingga,) enjoys almost as much estimation 

 throughout the islands as a great warrior. 



MICRONESIA. 



/ 



This " region of small islands," as it is very appropriately desig- 

 nated, extends between the meridians of 132 E. and 178 W., and 

 between the parallels of 21 N. and 5 S. The greatest number lie 

 in a range between the parallels of 5 and 10 N., scattered as con- 



18 



