HAWAIIAN SPORTS.

_In wrestling nimble, and in running swift,_
_In shooting steady, and in swimming strong,_
_Well made to strike, to leap, to throw, to lift,_
_And all the sports that shepherds are among._


_Tuesday, December 26th_.--We went ashore at eight o'clock, after an
early cup of coffee, and found Mr. Lyman already waiting for us. Two
baggage-mules were sent off with the photographic apparatus, and all
the materials for breakfast, to the Rainbow Falls, where the children
are looking forward with intense glee to boiling their own kettle,
poaching eggs, and trying other cooking experiments.

Before setting out for the Falls ourselves, we went to see the
national sport of surf-swimming, for their skill in which the
Hawaiians are so justly famed.

The natives have many other games of which they are very fond, and
which they play with great skill, including spear-throwing,
transfixing an object with a dart, _kona_, an elaborate kind of
draughts, and _talu_, which consists in hiding a small stone under one
of five pieces of cloth, placed in front of the players. One hides the
stone, and the others have to guess where it is; and it generally
happens that, however dexterously the hider may put his arm beneath
the cloth, and dodge about from one piece to another, a clever player
will be able to tell, by the movement of the muscles of the upper part
of his arm, when his fingers relax their hold of the stone. Another
game, called _parua_, is very like the Canadian sport of 'tobogging,'