The two national games that have held their own are _veitinka_ and _lavo_. The _tinka_ or _ulutoa_ is a reed four feet long fitted into a pointed head carved out of ironwood, and about four inches long. On the outskirts of every village in Western Vitilevu is the _tinka_ ground, a level stretch of bare earth over one hundred yards long by ten wide. The _ulutoa_ is thrown thus: the thrower rests the end of the reed on the ball of the middle finger of the right hand, and, with the arm extended behind him and the point of the _ulutoa_ on the level of his armpit, he takes a short run and discharges the weapon with the full force of the right side of his body. It flies through the air for the first thirty yards with a low trajectory, and touching the ground with its smooth surface, skims along it, barely touching the earth until its force is spent. The longest throw wins the game. The heavy head and the light shaft make the _ulutoa_ an attractive missile, but the unpractised European finds the knack of throwing straight very difficult to acquire. Almost every fine evening finds the youths of the village at practice on the _tinka_ ground, and on feast-days challenges are sent out to the neighbouring villages and matches are played. Good players regard their ironwood heads much as golfers do their favourite driver, but they cut the reed shafts from the roadside as they want them. [Pageheader: THE GAME OF _LAFO_] _Lavo_ has a curious history. It was originally a Fijian game, and was played with the _lavo_, the flat round seeds of the _walai_ creeper (_Mimosa Scandens_), which from its shape has given its name to all European coins, for the dollars recovered from the wrecked brig _Eliza_ in 1809 were used for the game in preference to the seeds. The Tongan immigrants learned the game and carried it back with them to Tonga, under the name of _lafo_, where, the seeds being scarce, they substituted discs of cocoanut-shell, which were a great improvement. In Tonga it flourished exceedingly; the rules were improved, special sheds were erected for it, and valuable property changed hands in the stakes. Meanwhile it had died out in Fiji, and when it revived through the influence of the Tongans domiciled in the group, it was in its Tongan form with cocoanut-shells. I have described it elsewhere in detail,[104] and I will here only indicate the rules. A board is made with mats about fifteen feet long, slightly raised at the sides so as to form a sloping cushion. The four players sit, two at each end, so arranged that the partners are divided by the length of the board, and each is sitting beside an adversary. Each player throws five discs alternately with his opponent, and the object is to skim the disc so as to be nearest the extreme edge, and to knock off an adversary's disc that may be nearer.