Nevertheless the children seemed to be greatly delighted
with the hideous faces they made. I pondered this subject a good deal,
and thought that if little children knew how silly they seemed to
grown-up people when they make faces, they would not be so fond of
doing it. In another place were a number of boys engaged in flying
kites, and I could not help wondering that some of the games of those
little savages should be so like to our own, although they had never
seen us at play. But the kites were different from ours in many
respects, being of every variety of shape. They were made of very thin
cloth, and the boys raised them to a wonderful height in the air by
means of twine made from the cocoa-nut husk. Other games there were,
some of which showed the natural depravity of the hearts of these poor
savages, and made me wish fervently that missionaries might be sent out
to them. But the amusement which the greatest number of the children of
both sexes seemed to take chief delight in was swimming and diving in
the sea, and the expertness which they exhibited was truly amazing.
They seemed to have two principal games in the water, one of which was
to dive off a sort of stage which had been erected near a deep part of
the sea, and chase each other in the water. Some of them went down to
an extraordinary depth; others skimmed along the surface, or rolled
over and over like porpoises, or diving under each other, came up
unexpectedly and pulled each other down by a leg or an arm.
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