POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
297 
sticks used by the Tahitians were rude and unpolished, 
just as they were cut from the tree 5 but those used by 
the inhabitants of the Southern Islands are made with 
the aito^ or iron-wood, the handle wrought with great 
care, and sometimes curiously carved, while a round 
protuberance is formed at the lower end, which is 
slightly curved, and augments the force with which they 
strike the ball. 
The tuiraa^ or foot-ball, is also a frequent game, 
• though perhaps it was followed more by the women than 
the men : yet whole districts engaged in this amusement. 
In the former, they only struck the ball with a stick ; in 
this, they employed the foot, and each party endeavoured 
to send it beyond the opposite boundary line, which had 
been marked out before they began. When either party 
succeeded in this, the air was rent with their shouts 
of success. 
The haru raa puu, seizing of the ball, was however the 
favourite game of this kind. The females alone en¬ 
gaged in the seizing of the ball 5 in projecting which, 
neither sticks nor feet were allowed to be applied. An 
open place was necessary for all their sports, and the sea- 
beach was usually selected. The boundary mark of each 
party was fixed by a stone on the beach, or some other object 
on the shore, having a space of fifty or a hundred yards 
between. The ball was a large roll or bundle of the tough 
stalks of the plantain leaves twisted closely and firmly 
together. They began in the centre of the space. One 
party, seizing the ball, endeavoured to throw it over the 
boundary mark of the other. As soon as it was thrown, 
both parties started after it, and, in stooping to seize it, 
a scramble often ensued among those who first reached 
the ball 5 the numbers increased as the others came up, 
2 Q 
