SWIMMING IN THE SURF. 
369 
waves of the sea as they dash on the shore; yet 
this is the most popular and delightful of the 
native sports. 
There are perhaps no people more accustomed 
to the water than the islanders of the Pacific; 
they seem almost a race of amphibious beings. 
Familiar with the sea from their birth, they lose 
all dread of it, and seem nearly as much at home 
in the water as on dry land. There are few chil¬ 
dren who are not taken into the sea by their mo¬ 
thers the second or third day after their birth, and 
many who can swim as soon as they can walk. 
The heat of the climate is, no doubt, one source of 
the tgratification they find in this amusement, 
which is so universal, that it is scarcely possible to 
pass along the shore where there are many habi¬ 
tations near, and not see a number of children 
playing in the sea. Here they remain for hours 
together, and yet I never knew of but one child 
being drowned during the number of years I have 
resided in the islands. They have a variety of 
games, and gambol as fearlessly in the water as 
the children of a school do in their play-ground. 
Sometimes they erect a stage eight or ten feet high 
on the edge of some deep place, and lay a pole in 
an oblique direction over the edge of it, perhaps 
twenty feet above the water; along this they pur¬ 
sue each other to the outermost end, when they 
jump into the sea. Throwing themselves from he 
lower yards, or bowsprit, of a ship, is also a favour¬ 
ite sport, but the most general and frequent game 
is swimming in the surf. The higher the sea and 
the larger the waves, in their opinion the better 
the sport. On these occasions they use a board, 
which they call papa he ndru , (wave sliding- 
board,) generally five or six feet long, and rather 
IV. 2 B 
