NATIVE GAMES. 
199 
centre. These stones are finely polished, highly 
valued, and carefully preserved, being always oiled 
and wrapped up in native cloth, after having been 
used. The people are, if possible, more fond of 
this game than of the pahe; and the inhabitants 
of a district not unfrequently challenge the people 
of the whole island, or the natives of one island 
those of all the others, to bring a man who shall 
try his skill with some favourite player of their 
own district or island. On such occasions we have 
seen seven or eight thousand chiefs and people, 
men and women, assembled to witness the sport, 
which, as well as the pahe, is often continued for 
hours together. 
Many of these amusements require great bodily 
exertion ; and we have often been struck with the 
restless avidity and untiring effort with which they 
pursue even the most toilsome games. Sometimes 
we have expressed our surprise, that they should 
labour so arduously at their sport, and so leisurely 
at their plantations or houses, which, in our opi¬ 
nion, would be far more conducive to their advan¬ 
tage and comfort. They have generally answered, 
that they built houses and cultivated their gardens 
from necessity, but followed their amusements be¬ 
cause their hearts were fond of them. There are 
some few who play merely for pleasure; but the 
greater part engage in it in hopes of gain. 
Were their games followed only as sources of 
amusement, they would be comparatively harm¬ 
less ; but the demoralizing influence of the various 
kinds of gambling existing among them, is very 
extensive. Scarcely an individual resorts to their 
games but for the purpose of betting; and at these 
periods all the excitement, anxiety, exultation, and 
rage, which such pursuits invariably produce,* are 
