Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/245

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��24. Lf-le-ka-wa : " Precipice-jumping." — Leaping frot cliffs into the sea is a favorite pastime. The feat is perfon a game, the first one reaching the goal being regarded winner. The name is from ka~wa, " a precipice," and U- jump."

25. O-i-ti-puJtJo. — A former sport of the chiefs was ti lighted firebrands down a /a-/*, or precipice, at night. It described by an eye-witness ' :

" On dark, moonless nights from certain points of these prec — where a stone would drop sheer into the sea, — the operator ta stand with a supply of pa-pa-la sticks (a light and porous indi wood), and, igniting one, launches it into space. The buoyancj wood and the action of the wind sweeping up the face of the cliff; the burning branch to float in mid-air, rising or falling accordin; force of the wind, sometimes darting far seaward, and again < towards the land. Firebrand follows firebrand, until, to the spe who enjoy the scene in canoes upon the ocean hundreds of feet the heavens appear ablaze with great shooting stars, rising and crossing and recrossing each other in a weird manner. So the continues until the firebrands are consumed, or a lull in th permits them to descend slowly and gracefully into the sea."

The papa/a tree {Ckarpentiera ovata) attains the heij about twenty feet and grows only upon the highlands froi to three thousand feet above the sea.

26. Hee-fu>-lu-a : " Sledge-sliding." — Two persons, stn at full length, slide together head-first down hill on a si board (Jto-Iu-a). Several often compete, the one down firs ning a prize. My informants state that the game is no practiced.

Of this pastime Ellis" says:

"The ko-lu-a has for many generations been a popular arnu throughout the Sandwich Islands, and is still practiced in : places. The pa-pa or sledge is composed of two narrow runner:

'Mrs Francis Sinclair, Jr, Indigenous Floviert ef lit Hawaiian London. 1885. Quoted from Dr Bolton.

•VoL iv, p. aoq.

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