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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
Pacific, the Tahitians are fond of the water, and lose 
all dread of it before they are old enough to know the 
danger to which we should consider them ’ exposed. 
They are among the best divers that are known, and 
spend much of their time in the sea, not only when 
engaged in acts of labour, but when following their 
amusements. One of their most favourite sports, is the 
faahee^ or swimming in the surf, when the waves are high, 
and the billows break in foam and spray among the 
reefs. Individuals of all ranks and ages, and both sexes, 
follow this pastime with the greatest avidity. They 
usually selected the openings in the reefs, or entrances 
of some of the bays, for their sport 5 where the long 
heavy billows of the ocean rolled in unbroken majesty 
upon the reef or the shore. They used a small board, 
which they called papa faahee —swam from the beach 
to a considerable distance, sometimes nearly a mile, 
watched the swell of the wave, and when it reached 
them, resting their bosom on the short flat pointed 
board, they mounted on its summit, and, amid the foam 
and spray, rode on the crest of the wave to the shore: 
sometimes they halted among the coral rocks, over which 
the waves broke in splendid confusion. When they 
approached the shore, they slid off the board, which 
they grasped with the hand, and either fell behind the 
wave, or plunged toward the deep, and allowed it to 
pass over their heads. Sometimes they were thrown 
with violence upon the beach, or among the rocks on 
the edges of the reef. So much at home, however, do 
they feel in the water, that it is seldom any accident 
occurs. 
I have often seen, along the border of the reef forming 
the boundary line to the harbour of Fare, in Huahine, 
