SWIMMING IN THE SURF. 
223 
parted. This amusement was sometimes continued 
for several days successively, and, as well as the 
other recreations, was patronized by their idols. 
Ruaifaatoa, the god of cockfighters, appears among 
the earliest of their inferior divinities. 
Like the inhabitants of most of the islands of the 
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 in the 
world, 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 favourite 
sports is the home or faahee , swimming in the 
surf, when the waves are high, and the billows 
break in foam and spray among the reefs. Indi¬ 
viduals 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; 
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 
fahee —swam from the beach to a considerable 
distance, sometimes nearly a mile, watched the 
swell of the wave, and when it reached them, rest¬ 
ing 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 con¬ 
fusion. 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 
