308 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
made with a piece of light wood of the hibiscus^ the 
cordage of bark, and the sails either of the leaflets of 
the cocoa-nut, or the native cloth. The owners of these 
little vessels frequently go in small parties, and, taking 
their small-craft in their hands, wade up to their waist 
or arm-pits in the sea, and sometimes swim still further 
out; and then, launching their miniature fleets, consisting 
of ships, brigs, sloops, boats, canoes, &c. return towards 
the shore. They usually fix a piece of stone at the 
bottom of the little barks, which keeps them upright; and 
as the wind wafts them along the bay, their owners run 
along up to their knees in the sea, splashing and shouting 
as they watch their progress. 
Such were some of the amusements of the natives in the 
South Sea Islands. In these, when not engaged in war, 
they spent much of their time. There were also others, 
of a less athletic kind, and of less universal prevalence. 
Among these, the aperea was one of the most prevalent; 
it consisted in jerking a reed, two feet and a half or 
three feet in length, along the ground. The men seldom 
played at it, but it was a common diversion for the 
women and children. Timo^ or was another 
game with the same class. The parties sat on the 
ground, with a heap of stones by their side, held a small 
round stone in the right hand, which they threw several 
feet up into the air, and, before it fell, took up one of 
the stones from the heap, which they held in the right 
hand till they caught that which they had thrown up, 
when they threw down the stone they had taken up, 
tossed the round stone again, and continued taking up 
a fresh stone every time they threw the small round 
one into the air, until the whole heap was removed. 
The teatea mata "was a singular play among the children. 
