372 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
tion, they frequently unite, set up a loud shout, 
and make so much splashing in the water, as to 
frighten him away. Their fear of them, however, 
is very great; and after a party return from this 
amusement, almost the first question they are 
asked is, “ Were there any sharks?” The fondness 
of the natives for the water must strike any person 
visiting their islands: long before he goes on 
shore, he will see them swimming around his ship; 
and few ships leave without being accompanied 
part of the way out of the harbour by the natives, 
sporting in the water; but to see fifty or a hundred 
persons riding on an immense billow, half im¬ 
mersed in spray and foam, for a distance of several 
hundred yards together, is one of the most novel 
and interesting sports a foreigner can witness in 
the islands. 
When we arrived at the house of Arapai, we 
were welcomed by his wife and several members of 
his family. 
Arapai is evidently a chief of some importance. 
We saw several large double canoes in his out¬ 
houses. The number of his domestics was greater 
than usual; his house was large, well built, and 
stocked with a number of useful articles, among 
which we noticed some large and handsomely 
stained calabashes, marked with a variety of de¬ 
vices, The calabash is a large kind of gourd, 
sometimes capable of holding four or five gallons. 
It is used to contain water and other fluids, by the 
natives of all the islands in the South Sea; but the 
art of staining it is peculiar to the Sandwich 
Islanders, and is another proof of their superior 
powers of invention and ingenuity. When the 
calabash has grown to its full size, they empty it 
in the usual manner, by placing it in the sun till 
