575 



a, toy canoe or use a toy net or fish spear. On Mailu Island 

 these educational games refer mainly to sailing and fishing, as 

 might easily be expected in a community of sailors and fisher- 

 men. But imitation of native dancing — which becomes a very 

 important activity in the later life — and imitation of spearing 

 belong to the class of educational plays. 



These are children's games having an educational aspect. 

 Children also join their parents in their activities, first in play, 

 then more and more seriously, thus imperceptibly acquiring the 

 arts of mature life. The girl sits near her mother and watches 

 her making pottery ; or, with a small stick, imitates her actions 

 in digging the ground, or helps her in peeling the vegetables 

 and preparing the food. Small girls jcin also their mothers 

 in searching for frutti di mare. 



The boys join their fathers on hunting expeditions, and 

 when they go with them to sea they observe and lend a hand 

 in managing the big canoes. 



Besides these games with an educational aspect there are 

 a few games pure and simple. Thus catscradles, played all 

 the year round, especially by women, form a very favourite 

 pastime. There are also a few games like tug-of-war, etc., 

 played by boys and girls separately late in the afternoon and 

 ■on clear moonlight evenings. As these correspond in a way to 

 dancing, the older boys do not take part in them ; but full 

 grown-up women enjoy them side by side with small girls. 



Toy Boats, and Sail in f/ Games of the Boys. — The play 

 with boats must be described more fully. There are two kinds 

 of boats made for the special benefit of boys— small models of 

 the large, crab-sail double canoes fOro'i/), and small cut- 

 rigger canoes (called KdroJ, so small that no grown-up man 

 *could sail in them, but large enough to support one or two 

 urchins. In these the boys sail, usually within the reef which 

 runs not far from the beach. But sometimes they venture 

 further out, even in fairly rough weather, in a way that, for 

 skill and daring, arouses wonder and appreciation even in the 

 unfeeling breast of a field ethnographer. The time for these 

 escapades is usually at the break of the seasons, when the 

 south-eastern wind changes into the monsoon, and undoubtedly 

 they afford the m.eans of learning how to manage a canoe and 

 a sail, which latter is very often used. They also learn how 

 to bail out a dug-out when it has sunk by water-logging. They 

 all swim very well. 



The models of the Oro'u are used in play. Whole days 

 are spent in shallow water by boys in following their canoes as 

 they sail across the small bay in front of the Mailu village 

 (see pi. xxxiv., figs. 1 and 2). This play with models of the 

 large boats, called Ede'ede'i, is done during the ncrth-west 



