302 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



long, a third of an inch wide, and an 

 eighth of an inch deep. The flattened 

 surface cut for its reception is five 

 inches long and one-half inch broad. 

 The stake, " kousikanga," of dry 

 Premna taitensis chosen, was origin- 

 ally about six feet long and an inch 

 and a half in diameter. The wooden 

 knife " koufataronga " used on it is 

 of another timber, nine inches long, 

 one wide, and half an inch thick, 



obliquely truncated at the worn end. 



In Hawaii, " a smaller stick, the aulima, is held in the hand 



and rubbed in a groove in a larger stick, the aunaki."* 



The reverence, amounting almost to fire-worship, paid to fire by 



different settlements of the Tokelau people, is related ante p. 55. 



TOYS. 



A game formerly played on Funafuti, but which is not now 

 practised, was that of throwing a toy dart. I have gathered a 

 few references to this game as played elsewhere in the Pacific, but 

 further literary search would probably widen the known range. 



Captain Erskine has thus described the game as he saw it 

 played in Fijif: " On our return to the Mission house we met a 

 number of men in full dress, that is, painted either black or red, 

 their hair frizzed out, and decorated with blue beads, some wearing 



farters or bands tied in bows under the knee, and a few with a 

 ilt or petticoat, resembling that of the women. Each carried 

 a short cane, with an oblong, pear-shaped head, forming a kind of 

 blunt dart, with which a game called " tika," or "titika" is played. 

 We followed them to the spot, which presented a very gay scene, 

 a hundred or so of persons being assembled at the sides of a level, 

 well swept mall, about one hundred and fifty yards long, and five 

 or six wide, skirted with trees and shrubs. Each player advanced 

 in turn, and threw his dart at a mark placed at the end of the 

 mall, but none of them exhibited much skill, nor did the game 

 seem to us one of any interest, and all were quiet and decorous."! 

 On the authority of Dr. Turner, Edge-Partington publishes from 

 Niue a " head of a dart used in a game," which closely resembles 

 the one before me. 



* Brigham loc. cit., pt. ii., p. 31. 



f Erskine Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western 

 Pacific, 1853, p. 169. 



J Another description of the game in Fiji is given by the Rev. J. G. 

 Wood Natural History of Man, ii., 1870, p. 283. In the Journal of the 

 Godeffroy Museum, iv., 1876, pi. xvi., fig. 1, a player is drawn in the act 

 of casting his dart, " ulutoa." The attitude is the same shown me on 

 Funafuti. 



Edge-Partington loc. cit., i. t pi. xxxix., fig. 1. 



