224 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
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 Fa-re, 
in Huahine, from fifty to a hundred persons, of all 
ages, sporting like so many porpoises in the surf, 
sometimes mounted on the top of the wave, and 
almost enveloped in spray ; at other times plunging 
beneath the mass of water that has swept in moun¬ 
tains over them, cheering and animating each 
other; and, by the noise and shouting they made, 
rendering the roaring of the sea, and the dashing 
of the surf, comparatively imperceptible. Their 
surf-boards are inferior to those of the Sandwich 
Islanders, and I do not think swimming in the sea 
as an amusement, whatever it might have been 
formerly, is now practised so much by the natives 
in the south, as by those in the north Pacific. 
Both were exposed in this sport to one common 
cause of interruption ; and this was, the intrusion 
of the shark. The cry of a mao among the former, 
and a mano among the latter, is one of the most 
terrific they ever hear; and I am not surprised 
that such should be the effect of the approach of 
one of these voracious monsters. The great shout¬ 
ing and clamour which they make, is principally 
designed to frighten away such as may approach. 
Notwithstanding this, they are often disturbed 
and sometimes meet their death from these formi¬ 
dable enemies. 
A most affecting instance of this kind occurred 
very recently in the Sandwich Islands, of which 
the following account is given by Mr. Richards, 
and published in the American Missionary Herald: 
