•?79- arms, in the fame manner as the Friendly Iflanders, had a
.Ma;c- - ' very pleafing effect.
It is very remarkable, that the people o f thefe iflands are
great gamblers. They have a game very much like our
draughts j but, i f one may judge from the number o f
fquares, it is much more intricate. The board is about two
feet long, and is divided into two hundred and thirty-eight
fquares, o f w h ich there are fourteen in a row, and they
their competitions in private, an« threw out the inferior voices, before they ventured
to appear before thofe who were fuppofed to be judges o f their (kill in
mufic. '
In their regular concerts, each man had a bamboo, which was of a different
length, and gave a different tone :, thefe they beat againft the ground, and each performer,
affifted by the note given by this inftrument, repeated.the fame note, accompanying
it by words, by which means it was rendered fometimes ihort, and fometimes
long. In this manner, they fung in chorus, and not only produced oitaves to each
other, according to their different fpecies o f voice, but fell on concords, fuchas were
not difagreeable to the ear.
Now, to overturn this faift, by the reafoning of perfons who did not hear thefe performances,
is Father an arduous talk. And, yet, there is great improbability that any
uncivilized people Ihould, by accident, arrive at this degree of perfeftion in the art of
mufic, which we imagine can only be attained by dint of ftudy, and knowledge of the
fyftem and theory upon which mufical compofition is founded!' ( Such miferable jargon
as our country Pfalm-fingers praflife, which may be juftly deemed the loWeft clafs of
counterpoint, orfingmg in feveral parts, cannot be acquired in the cbarfe manner in
which it is performed in the churches, without corifiderable time and pra&jce. It,is ,
therefore, fcarcely credible, that a people, femi-barbarous, Ihould naturally arrive at
any perfeition in that art, which it is much doubted whether the Greeks and Romans,
with all their refinements in mufic, ever attained, and which the Chinefe, who have
been longer civilized than any people on the globe, have not yet found out.
I f Captain Burney (who, by the teftimony of his father, perhaps the greateft-mufi-
cal theorift of this or any other age, was able to have done it) had written down, in
European notes, the concords that thefe people fung>; and if thefe concords had been
fuch as European ears could tolerate, there would have been no longer doubt of
the fa£t: but, as it is, it would, in my opinion, be a ralh judgment to venture to
affirm that they did or did not underffand counterpoint; and'therefore I fear that
this-curipus matter muft be confidered as ftill remaining undecided,
make ufe o f black and white pebbles, which they move from Jm-
1 ‘ March.
fquare to fquare. »— -— »
There is another game, which confifts in hiding a ftone
under a piece o f cloth, which one o f the parties fpreads out,
and rumples in fuch a manner, that the place where thé
ftone lies is difficult to be diftinguiffied. The antagonift,
with a flick, then ftrikes the part of the cloth where he imagines
the ftone to be; and as the chances are, upon the
whole, confiderably againft his hitting it, odds, o f all degrees,
varying with the opinion o f the ikill o f the parties;
are laid on the fide of him who hides.
Befides thefe games, -they frequently amufe themfelves
with racing-matches between the boys and girls ; and here
again they wager with great fpirit. I faw a man in a moft
violent rage, tearing his hair, and beating his breaft, after
lofing three hatchets at one o f thefe races, which he had
juft before purchafed from us, with half his fubftance.
Swimming is not only a neceflary art, in which both
their men and women are more expert than any people we
had hitherto feen, but a favourite diverfion amongft them.
One particular mode, in which they fometimes amufed
themfelves with this exercife, in Karakakooa Bay, appeared
to us moft perilous and extraordinary, and well deferving a
diftinft relation.
The furf, which breaks on the coaft round the bay, extends
to the diftance o f about one hundred and fifty yards
from the ffiore, within which fpace, the furges o f the fea,
accumulating from the ihallownefs o f the water, are daffied
againft the beach with prodigious violence. Whenever,
from ftormy weather, or any extraordinary fwell at fea, the
impetuofity o f the furf is increafed to its utmoft height, they
V o l . III. U choofe