Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/244

 culin] HAWAIIAN GAMES 21 3

Racing in the surf is called keuhei-na-lu, from heuhei, "to race," and na-lu, " surf." Two champions will swim out to sea on boards and the one first arriving on shore wins.

Playing in the surf is hee-na-lu, from hee, " to glide." Andrews gives the names o4o and o-wi-li for " a very thick surf-board made

���FlG. 4 — Surf-board of hard, blackened wood ; length, 71 inches. British Museum. (From Ethno- graphic Album of the Pacific Islands, 11, 33, No. 1.)

of wi-li-wi-li" and o-ni-ni as " a kind of surf-board " ; also pa-ha as •' a name for surf-board/' and ki-o-e, the " name of a small surf- board."

According to Brigham 1 —

" Surf -boards were usually made of ko-a, flat with slightly convex surface, rounded at one end, slightly narrowing towards the stern, where it was cut square. Sometimes the pa-pa were made of very light wi-li-wi-li and then were narrow, o-lo. In size they varied from 3 to 18 feet in length and from 8 to 10 inches in breadth, but some of the ancient boards are said to have been 4 fathoms long. The largest in this museum are so heavy that they require two men to move them. The surf riders swam out to sea to the ku-la-na or place where the high rollers follow each other in quick succession, and there mounted a high wave and rode on it until near the beach where the water was smoother; the first one arriving at the hu-a won the race. The riders sometimes raced also to the ku-la-na or starting place. Standing on the boards as they shot in was by no means uncommon. Men and women both took part in this delightful pastime which is now almost a lost art. ' '

Wilkes* says : "The Kingsmill islanders use a small board in swimming in the surf like that used by the Sandwich islanders." According to Codrington," "in the Banks' islands and Torres islands, and no doubt in other groups, they use the surf board, tapa"

1 Preliminary Catalogue, part II, p. 55. 3 Op. cit. t p. 341.


 * Op. cit. f vol. v, p. 100.

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