Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/156

 128 FIJI AND THE FIJIAI^S. The fruit is flat and circular, and from its resemblance in form to men- ey, money is also called ai lavo. A more athletic sport is the tiqa or ulutoa. Tliis game is played by throwing from the forefinger a reed of three or four feet long, armed with a six-inch oval point of heavy wood. This weapon is made to skim along the ground to a distance of a hundred yards or more. Nearly every village has near it a long level space kept clear of grass for the practice of this favourite exercise. A kind of skittles, played with stones, is not uncommon ; and skil- ful players will throw the stone with their back towards the skittles. Canoe racing is somewhat frequent. The veisaga is practised on a large scale in some parts of the group. Upon the top of a hill men and women assemble to sport and wrestle. If a man closes with a woman, he attempts to throw her, and, on suc- ceeding, they both roll together down the hill. Sometimes a sprain is the consequence ; but the sufferer takes care to conceal the accident, lest the taunts and ridicule of the crowded spectators should be added to his misfortune. The veisolo is another rough sport. In the cases which I saw, the attack was made by women on a number of male visitors. They wait ed until food was brought to the men, and then rushed on their guests, endeavouring to disperse them, and take away the food. The men, either from custom or gallantry, merely retaliate by taking the women captives, or throwing them gently on the ground. The women, how- ever, were not so mild ; and I was acquainted with instances of men dying from the violence of their blows. One Amazon engaged in this sport shot a man dead with an arrow. The kalou rere, described in the following chapter, is also considered a pastime. Veivasa ni moli is a game which consists in suspending a moli (orange, lemon, &c.) by a string, and trying to pierce it with the vasa, (a pointed stick,) w^hile it is swinging about. Several amusements belong to the water, such as chasing each other, wrestling, and diving. Shoals of men or of women are seen, on a calm day, striking away from the shore, with gleeful notes, or that hearty abandonment of broad-mouthed mirth for which they are so famous. In the game of ririJca^ an upright post is fixed at the edge of a reef, and the upper end of a long cocoa-nut tree rested on it, so as to form an easy ascent, with the point projecting beyond the post, and raised about fifteen or twenty feet above the surface of the water. The natives run up this incline in a continuous single file, and their rapidly succeedirg