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greenwood/ellis : wildman at home, 1885

James Greenwood : The Wildman at Home, circa 1885.
'Ellis' : Surfriding in Tahiti,

Extracted from : Greenwood, James:
The Wild Man at Home: or, Pictures of Life in Savage Lands
Ward, Lock, and Co.,
Warwick House, Dorset Buildings, Salsbury Square, E.C. circa 1885.
Page 110.
One (1) illustration, page 96. Woodcut and design by Harden S. Melville.
Engraved by Newsom Woods.

Introduction.
Given the diverse references to many countries and extensive quotations from earlier commentators, it appears the vast majority of this book is not based on first person observations.
It is unlikely that Greenwood travelled to the South Seas, either Tahiti or Hawaii, in the 1800s.
The relevant chapter, "Savage Pastime", reports various recreational activities ranging from New Zealand, across the Pacific, to North America.
The report of surf-riding is credited to "Ellis", proably the noted polynesian commentator, the Rev.William Ellis.
Note that the report does not correspond to the 1830 account by the Rev.William Ellis : Surf-riding at Waimanu (Hawaii).
The specified location, "the harbour of Fare in Huahine", is one of the Society Islands, north of Tahiti.
To further confuse matters, the illustration at the beginning of the chapter is titled "Surf Swimming off the Coast of Hawaii", detailed below.
The account bears several similarities with that of James Morrison in1788, Surfriding in Tahiti.

The original source is possibly:
Ellis, Rev. William: Polynesian Researches, During a Residence of Nearly Eight Years in the Society and Sandwich Islands.
Volumes I to III.
Fisher, Son and Jackson, London, 1829. pages 223 or 305.
Noted in Dela Vega et al. (2004) page 18.

The commentary for the entry notes:
"Ellis describes surf riding in Tahiti and compares them to Hawaiians:
'Their surf-boards are inferior to those of the Sandwich islanders, and I do not think swlmming in the sea as an amusement, whatever it might have been formerly; is now practiced so much by the natives of the South, as by the North.'
Noted the Tahhltian surf God was named Huaourl.
Does not Include Hawaiian text." (Ellis, 1830 : Surf-riding at Waimanu)
The possible decline in Tahitian surfriding suggested here by Ellis may appear somewhat at odds with the account in Greenwood which records surfriders numbering "from fifty to a hundred persons of all ages."

Also see James Morrison,1788: Surfriding in Tahiti

Chapter IV: Savage Pastime
Pages 97 to 115.

Page 110

Faahee (1), or surf-swimming, is another favourite pastime with these people.
According to Ellis, "individuals of all ranks and ages and both sexes follow this sport with great avidity.
They usually selected the openings in the reefs or entrances of some of the bays, where the long heavy billows rolled in unbroken majesty upon the reef or the shore.
They used a small board, which they called papa faahee- swam from the beach to a considerable
distance, sometimes nearly a mile- watched the swell of the wave, and when it reached them, resting their bosoms on the short, flat-pointed board, they mounted on its summit, and amid the foam and spray rode on the crest of the wave to the shore; sometimes they halted among the coral rocks, over which the waves broke in splendid confusion.
When they approached the shore, they slid off the board, which they grasped with the hand, and either fell behind the wave or plunged towards the deep and allowed it to pass over their heads.
Sometimes they were thrown with violence upon the beach, or among the rocks on the edges of the reef.
So much at home, however:, do they feel in the water, that it is seldom any accident occurs.

" I have often seen along the border of the reef forming the boundary line to the harbour of Fare in Huahine, from fifty to a hundred persons of all ages, sporting like so many porpoises in the surf that has been rolling with foam and violence towards the land; sometimes mounted on the top of the wave, and almost enveloped in spray, at other times plunging beneath the mass of water that has swept like mountains over them, cheering and animating each other; and by the noise and shouting they made rendering the roar of the sea and the dashing of the surf comparatively imperceptible."

Surf Swimming off the Coast of Hawaii.
Woodcut and design by Harden S. Melville.
Engraved by Newsom Woods.
Greenwood, James:
The Wild Man at Home: or, Pictures of Life in Savage Lands
Ward, Lock, and Co.,
Warwick House, Dorset Buildings, Salsbury Square, E.C.
Page 97.
The image is probably not based on observation, and is most likely a copy of "Surf swimming at Hawaii, Sandwich Islands."
Leslie's Illustrated Weely,
New York Arkell Weekly Co.
7 April 1866. Page 37.

NOTES
James Greenwood, the son of a coach-builder, was born in London in the 1840s.
As a young man he obtained employment on the Pall Mall Gazette.
Sympathetic to the plight of the working-class, Greenwood wrote several articles highlighting the problems of poor housing and public heath.
Greenwood moved to the Daily Telegraph where he continued to write articles on social issues.
Although primarily a journalist, novelist, miscellaneous writer, and author of juvenile fiction,
Greenwood authored several works on savages (this book and 'Wild Sports of the World',pre 1885) as well as various books about people outside the mainstream of life: criminals, the inhabitants of workhouses, the homeless of London.
He wrote a
He died in 1929.
www.abebooks.com

1. "Faahee"
This term is not found in any other account and may be an error in transcribing from the original text.

Geoff Cater (2007) : James Greenwood : Surfing in Hawaii, circa 1885.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1885_Greenwood_Ellis.html