Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/276

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culin] HAWAIIAN GAMES 233

70. Po-ai-pu-ni: Blind-man's-buff. — Children clasp hands in a ring, within which one stands blindfolded. The children dance around, and as they dance the ma-ka-po or " blind-man " catches one and then tries to guess who it is. Ellis 1 says that in Tahiti tupaurupauru, a kind of blind-man's-buff, was a favorite juvenile pastime, and Williams * mentions blind-man's-buff in Fiji.

71. Pa-a-ni a-lu a-lu : Prisoner's base. — A number of boys play, half on a side, each with its base (pa~hu). A boy will run out from either side, and those opposite will try to catch him and bring him to their goal. Stair ' mentions a game played in Sa- moa by a given number of young men who chose sides, the game appearing to resemble the English game of prisoner's base. J. Stanley Gardiner 4 says that in Rotuma " on moonlight nights the beach is alive with the girls and the boys, singing and playing all sorts of games. A favorite one of these is a sort of ' prisoner's base ' ; a kind of base is marked off, and then one side hides, while the other side searches for them ; they have, if possible, to get back within this base."

72. Pa-na-i-o-le : " MlCE-SHOOTlNG." — Shooting mice with bows and arrows, according to Alexander,* was engaged in only by chiefs, and connected with religious ceremonies. The bow was never used in war, but only for the above purpose. The deified bones of the chiefs were generally carefully concealed in the most secret and inaccessible caves to prevent their being made into arrows to shoot mice with, or into fish-hooks.

73. Mo-ko-mo-ko. — A national sport, practiced on holidays when village champions are opposed to each other. The contestants stand a certain distance apart and throw in succession seven spears, seven stones, seven stone axes with handles, and seven wooden knives, one at the other and then back again. If a player is hit he loses. The game is hazardous and exciting.

��1 Page 228. * Page 127. 8 Page 13C.

  • Journal Anthropological Institute, vol. XXVII, p. 48S.

5 Vol. 1, 91.

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