HAWAIIAN GAMES 215
- et long, two or three inches deep, highly polished, and
- end tapering off from the under side to a point at the
There two runners are fastened together by a number of wood laid horizontally across. To the upper edge of ccs two long, tpugh sticks are fastened, extending the f the cross-pieces and about 5 or 6 inches apart. Some- piece of matting is fastened over the whole upper sur- ree or four feet at the foremost end, though in general rt for the breast to rest on is covered. At the foremost
- pace of about two inches between the runners, but they
y towards the hinder part, where they are distant from - 5 inches. The person about to slide grasps the small y with his right hand, somewhere about the middle, runs the brow of the hill, or starting place, where he grasps land, and at the same time, with all his strength throwing 1, falls flat upon it, and slides down the hill, his hands hold of the side-sticks, and his feet being fixed against cross-piece of the sledge. Much practice and address to assume and keep an even balance on so narrow a man accustomed to the sport will throw himself with ^parent ease a hundred and fifty or two hundred yards of a gradually sloping hill."
states that ' —
ir track, was built with great care on a hill-side, and the
- are plainly seen on the hill, mau-ka, of the Museum.
I stone when a hollow in the track needed filling, the vered with earth well beaten down, and dry grass was , and a very slippery surface resulted. The sled, pa-pa ide of ma-ma-me {Erythrina crysophyi/a) or of u-hi-u-hi laiensis). Two long runners resembling skate irons were ) the upper stage 2} inches apart from the centers, the ig some 1 1$ feet long. This pa-pa was carefully oiled and the rider ran with the sled to gather impulse, and iself headlong down the course. This was an eminently
��res are preserved in the Bishop Museum; one of «, a) is said to have belonged to the hero Lonoika- hc other (Cat. No. 321) consists of the runners only. v Catalegut, part II. p. %h.
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