The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Part 42

[Footnote 46: In the story of _Kapuaokaoheloai_ we read that the daughter of the king of Kuaihelani, the younger brother of Hina, has a daughter who lives apart under a sacred taboo, with a bathing pool in which only virgins can safely bathe, and "ministered to by birds."

Samoan accounts say that the chiefs kept tame birds in their houses as pets, which fluttered freely about the rafters. A stranger unaccustomed to such a sight might find in it something wonderful and hence supernatural.]

CHAPTER XIII

[Footnote 47: A strict taboo between man and woman forbade eating together on ordinary occasions. Such were the taboo restrictions that a well-regulated, household must set up at least six separate houses: a temple for the household G.o.ds, _heiau_; an eating house for the men, _hale mua_, which was taboo to the women; and four houses especially for the women--the living house, _hale noa_, which the husband might enter; the eating house, _hale aina_; the house of retirement at certain periods, which was taboo for the husband, _hale pea_; and the _kua_, where she beat out tapa. The food also must be cooked in two separate ovens and prepared separately in different food vessels.]

[Footnote 48: The place of surf riding in Hawaiian song and story reflects its popularity as a sport. It inspires chants to charm the sea into good surfing--an end also attained by las.h.i.+ng the water with the convolvulus vine of the sea beach; forms the background for many an amorous or compet.i.tive adventure; and leaves a number of words in the language descriptive of the surfing technique or of the surf itself at particular localities famous for the sport, as, for example, the "Makaiwa crest" in Moikeha's chant, or the "Huia" of this story. Three kinds of surfing are indulged in--riding the crest in a canoe, called _pa ka waa_; standing or lying flat upon a board, which is cut long, rounded at the front end and square at the back, with slightly convex surfaces, and highly polished; and, most difficult feat of all, riding the wave without support, body submerged and head and shoulders erect.

The sport begins out where the high waves form. The foundation of the wave, _honua_, the crest side, _muku_, and the rear, _lala_, are all distinguished. The art of the surfer lies in catching the crest by active paddling and then allowing it to bear him in swift as a race horse to the _hua_, where the wave breaks near the beach. All swimmers know that three or four high waves follow in succession. As the first of these, called the _kulana_, is generally "a high crest which rolls in from end to end of the beach and falls over bodily," the surfer seldom takes it, but waits for the _ohu_ or _opuu_, which is "low, smooth and strong." For other details, see the article by a Hawaiian from Kona, published in the _Hawaiian Annual_, 1896, page 106.]

CHAPTER XIV

[Footnote 49: _Honi_, to kiss, means to "touch" or "smell," and describes the Polynesian embrace, which is performed by rubbing noses.

Williams (I, 152) describes it as "one smelling the other with a strong sniff."]

CHAPTER XV

[Footnote 50: The abrupt entrance of the great _moo_, as of its disappearance later in the story, is evidently due to the humanized and patched-together form in which we get the old romance. The _moo_ is the animal form which the G.o.d takes who serves Aiwohikupua's sisters, and represents the helpful beast of Polynesian folk tale, whose appearance is a natural result of the transformation power ascribed to the true demiG.o.d, or _kupua_, in the wilder mythical tales. The myths of the coming of the _moo_ to Hawaii in the days of the G.o.ds, and of their subjection by Hiiaka, sister of Pele, are recounted in Westervelt's "Legends of Honolulu" and in Emerson's "Pele and Hiiaka." Malo (p. 114) places Waka also among the lizard G.o.ds. These G.o.ds seem to have been connected] with the coming of the Pali family to Hawaii as recounted in Liliuokalani's "Song of Creation" and in Malo, page 20. The ritual of the G.o.d Lono, whose priests are inferior to those of Ku, is called that of "Paliku" (Malo, 210), a name also applied to the northern part of Hilo district on Hawaii with which this story deals. The name means "vertical precipice," according to Emerson, and refers to the rending by earthquakes. In fact, the description in this story of the approach of the great lizard, as well as his name--the word _kiha_ referring to the writhing convulsions of the body preparatory to sneezing--identify the monster with the earthquakes so common to the Puna and Hilo districts of Hawaii, which border upon the active volcano, Kilauea. Natives say that a great lizard is the guardian spirit or _aumakua_ of this section. At Kalapana is a pool of brackish water in which, they a.s.sert, lies the tail of a _moo_ whose head is to be seen at the bottom of a pool a mile and a half distant, at Punaluu; and bathers in this latter place always dive and touch the head in order to avert harm. As the lizard guardians of folk tale are to be found "at the bottom of a pit" (see Fornander's story of _Aukele_), so the little gecko of Hawaii make their homes in cracks along cuts in the _pali_, and the natives fear to harm their eggs lest they "fall off a precipice" according to popular belief. When we consider the ready contractility of Polynesian demiG.o.ds, the size of the monster dragons of the fabulous tales is no difficulty in the way of their identification with these tiny creatures, the largest of which found on Hawaii is 144 millimeters. By a plausible a.n.a.logy, then, the earthquake which rends the earth is attributed to the G.o.d who clothes himself in the form of a lizard; still further, such a convulsion of nature may have been used to figure the arrival of some warlike band who peopled Hawaii, perhaps settling in this very Hilo region and forcing their cult upon the older form of wors.h.i.+p.

CHAPTER XVI

[Footnote 51: The _ieie_ vine and the sweet-scented fern are, like the _maile_ vine, common in the Olaa forests, and are considered sacred plants dedicated to ceremonial purposes.]

[Footnote 52: The fight between two _kupua_, one in lizard form, the other in the form of a dog, occurs in Hawaiian story. Again, when Wahanui goes to Tahiti he touches a land where men are gathering coral for the food of the dead. This island takes the form of a dog to frighten travelers, and is named Kanehunamoku.]

[Footnote 53: The season for the bird catcher, _kanaka kia manu_, lay between March and May, when the _lehua_ flowers were in bloom in the upland forest, where the birds of bright plumage congregated, especially the honey eaters, with their long-curved bill, shaped like an insect's proboscis. He armed himself with gum, snares of twisted fiber, and tough wooden spears shaped like long fis.h.i.+ng poles, which were the _kia manu_.

Having laid his snare and spread it with gum, he tolled the birds to it by decorating it with honey flowers or even transplanting a strange tree to attract their curiosity; he imitated the exact note of the bird he wished to trap or used a tamed bird in a cage as a decoy. All these practical devices must be accompanied by prayer. Emerson translates the following bird charm:

Na aumakua i ka Po, Na aumakua i ka Ao, Ia Kane i ka Po, Ia Ka.n.a.loa i ka Po, Ia Hoomeha i ka Po, I ko'u mau kapuna a pau loa i ka Po.

Spirits of darkness primeval, Spirits of light, To Kane the eternal, To Ka.n.a.loa the eternal, To Hoomeha the eternal, To all my ancestors from eternity.

Ia Ku-huluhulumanu i ka Po, Ia pale i ka Po, A puka i ke Ao, Owau, o Eleele, ka mea iaia ka mana, Homai he iki, Homai he loaa nui, Pii oukou a ke kuahiwi, A ke kualono, Ho'a mai oukou i ka manu a pau, Hooili oukou iluna o ke kepau kahi e pili ni, Amama! Ua noa.

To Kuhuluhulumanu, the eternal.

That you may banish the darkness.

That we may enter the light.

To me, Eleele, give divine power.

Give intelligence.

Give great success.

Climb to the wooded mountains.

To the mountain ridges.

Gather all the birds.

Bring them to my gum to be held fast.

Amen, it is finished.]

CHAPTER XVII

[Footnote 54: For the cloud sign compare the story of Kualii's battles and in Westervelt's _Lepeamoa_ (Legends of Honolulu, p. 217), the fight with the water monster.]

[Footnote 55: Of Hawaiians at prayer Dibble says: "The people were in the habit of praying every morning to the G.o.ds, clapping their hands as they muttered a set form of words in a singsong voice."]

CHAPTER XVIII

[Footnote 56: The three mountain domes of Hawaii rise from 13,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea, and the two highest are in the wintertime often capped with snow.]

[Footnote 57: The games of _kilu_ and _ume_, which furnished the popular evening entertainment of chiefs, were in form much like our "Spin the plate" and "Forfeits." _Kilu_ was played with "a funnel-shaped toy fas.h.i.+oned from the upper portion of a drinking gourd, adorned with the _pawehe_ ornamentation characteristic of Niihau calabashes." The player must spin the gourd in such a way as to hit the stake set up for his side. Each hit counted 5, 40 scoring a game. Each player sang a song before trying his hand, and the forfeit of a _hula_ dance was exacted for a miss, the successful spinner claiming for his forfeit the favor of one of the women on the other side. _Ume_ was merely a method of choosing partners by the master of ceremonies touching with a wand, called the _maile_, the couple selected for the forfeit, while he sang a jesting song. The sudden personal turn at the close of many of the _oli_ may perhaps be accounted for by their composition for this game.

The _kaeke_ dance is that form of _hula_ in which the beat is made on a _kaekeeke_ instrument, a hollow bamboo cylinder struck upon the ground with a clear hollow sound, said to have been introduced by Laamaikahiki, the son of Moikeha, from Tahiti.]

CHAPTER XIX

[Footnote 58: In the story of Kauakahialii, his home at Pihanakalani is located in the mountains of Kauai back of the ridge Kuamoo, where, in spite of its inland position, he possesses a fishpond well stocked with fish.]

[Footnote 59: The Hawaiian custom of group marriages between brothers or sisters is clearly brought out in this and other pa.s.sages in the story.

"Guard our wife"--_Ka wahine a kaua_--says the Kauai chief to his comrade, "she belongs to us two"--_ia ia kaua_. The sisters of Aiwohikupua call their mistress's husband "our husband"--_ka kakou kane_. So Laieikawai's younger sister is called the "young wife"--_wahine opio_--of Laieikawai's husband, and her husband is called his _punalua_, which is a term used between friends who have wives in common, or women who have common husbands.]

[Footnote 60: The Hawaiian flute is believed to be of ancient origin. It is made of a bamboo joint pierced with holes and blown through the nose while the right hand plays the stops. The range is said to comprise five notes. The name Kanikawi means "changing sound" and is the same as that given to Kaponohu's supernatural spear.]

CHAPTER XX