136 SAMOAN GROUP. 



" Lafo litupa" is also played by two persons, who place about fifty 

 beans of the Mimosa scandium before them ; then taking up four at a 

 time, they throw them up in the air, and catch them on the back of 

 the hand ; the player who catches a hundred soonest is the winner. 



Tuae-fua: this is played by five or six persons. It resembles the 

 sport of the Chinese jugglers with iron balls. The first player some- 

 times takes as many as eight oranges, throwing them successively into 

 the air, and endeavours to keep the whole in motion at once. They 

 are very dexterous at this : if they miss three times, the game is lost. 



Tui-muri affords the natives much amusement. Any number of 

 persons may play at it. They seat themselves in a circle, and divide 

 into two parties. An orange is suspended from above, about two feet 

 from the ground, and each person is supplied with a small sharp- 

 pointed stick. The orange is swung round, and as it passes, each one 

 endeavours to pierce it, some with great eagerness, others quite calmly, 

 and others again with a w r ary coolness, all of which affords much 

 amusement to the bystanders. The party wins who first succeeds in 

 fairly hitting the orange fifty times. 



It is played for mats, trinkets, &c, but more generally for a baked 

 pig, which is eaten when the play is over. 



Litia : this is a general sport, sometimes whole villages playing 

 against each other ; it is in fact an exercise in spear-throwing. Two 

 parties furnish themselves with light sticks of the Hibiscus tiliaceus, 

 about eight or ten feet long and as thick as a finger. The bark is 

 stripped off, which makes them very light. The two parties arrange 

 themselves in a line, and strive to throw these as far as possible ; the 

 party which succeeds in throwing ' fifty the farthest wins the game. 

 The usual distance to which they are thrown is about forty yards, and 

 one would conceive it almost impossible for them to be thrown so far. 

 A grand feast usually terminates the sport, which the losing party 

 pays for. 



" Lafe," is a game confined to the chiefs, who play it for pastime. 

 Four persons sit at the corners of a mat, ten or twelve feet long, in 

 whose centre is placed another of ten inches square ; the persons at 

 opposite corners are partners ; each party is provided with five circular 

 pieces of cocoa-nut shells, from two inches in diameter to half a cocoa- 

 nut. The first player lays his smallest piece on the little mat, and his 

 opponent tries to knock it off, and leave his own in its place. Each in 

 his turn endeavours to knock his opponent's pieces off. The party 

 which first succeeds in knocking its opponent's pieces off one hundred 

 times, wins the game. The pieces of cocoa-nut are finely polished and 

 carved with a variety of devices. 



