214 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
this, they employed the foot, and each party en¬ 
deavoured 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 how¬ 
ever the favourite game of this kind. The females 
alone engaged in the seizing of the ball; in pro¬ 
jecting 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, seiz¬ 
ing 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 stoop¬ 
ing to seize it, a scramble often ensued among 
those who first reached the ball; the numbers in¬ 
creased as the others came up, and they frequently 
fell one over the other in the greatest confusion. 
Amidst the shouts, and din, and disorder that fol¬ 
lowed, arms or legs were sometimes broken before 
the ball was secured. As the pastime was usually 
followed on the beach, the ball was often thrown 
to the sea; here it was fearlessly followed, and, with 
all the noise and cheering of the different parties, 
forty or fifty women might sometimes be seen, up 
to their knees or their waists in the water, splash¬ 
ing and plunging amid the foam and spray, after 
the object of their pursuit. These are only some 
of the games that were followed by the adults, at 
