Before an alii-niaupio, clothed with the supreme function of the tabu-moe, all, with the exception of tabu chiefs, were compelled to prostrate themselves. When he appeared or was approached his rank was announced by an attendant, and all not exempt from the homage were required to drop with their faces to the earth. The exemptions were the alii-pio, the alii-naha, the alii-wohi and the lo-alii. They, and they alone, were permitted to stand in the presence of a niaupio chief. An alii-pio was also a sacred chief, so much so that he conversed with others only in the night-time, and on chiefesses of that rank the sun was not allowed to shine.
The kings lived in affluence in large mansions of wood or stone, in the midst of walled grounds adorned with fruit and shade trees and other attractive forms of vegetation. The grounds also contained many other smaller buildings for the accommodation of guests, retainers, attendants, servants and guards. They were attended by their high-priests, civil and military advisers, and a retinue of favorite chiefs, and spent their time, when not employed in war or affairs of state, in indolent and dignified repose.
The personal attendants of an ancient Hawaiian king were all of noble blood, and each had his specified duty. They were known as kahu-alii, or guardians of the person of the king. They consisted of the iwikuamoo, or rubber of the person; the ipukuha, or spittoon-bearer; the paakahili, or kahili-bearer; the kiaipoo, or sleep-watcher; and the aipuupuu, or steward. Other inferior chiefs, called puuku, with messengers, spies, executioners, prophets, astrologers, poets, historians, musicians and dancers, were among his retainers. Connected with the palace was an apartment used as a heiau, or chapel, which was sometimes in charge of the high-priest.
During festival seasons brilliant feasts, tournaments and hula and musical entertainments were given in the royal grounds, and the court was splendid in displays of flowers, feathers and other gaudy trappings. The king not unfrequently took part in the manly games and exercises of the chiefs, and sometimes complimented the hula dancers and musicians by joining in their performances.
To render the kings and higher nobility still more exclusive, they had a court language which was understood only by themselves, and which was changed in part from time to time as its expressions found interpretation beyond the royal circle. Some portions of this court language have been preserved.
ARTS, HABITS AND CUSTOMS.
All implements of war or industry known to the early Hawaiians were made either of wood, stone, or bone, as the islands are destitute of metals; but with these rude helps they laid up hewn-stone walls, felled trees, made canoes and barges, manufactured cloths and cordage, fashioned weapons, constructed dwellings and temples, roads and fish-ponds, and tilled the soil. They had axes, adzes and hammers of stone, spades of wood, knives of flint and ivory, needles of thorn and bone, and spears and daggers of hardened wood. They wove mats for sails and other purposes, and from the inner bark of the paper mulberry-tree beat out a fine, thin cloth called kapa, which they ornamented with colors and figures.
Their food was the flesh of swine, dogs and fowls; fish, and almost everything living in the sea; taro, sweet potatoes and yams, and fruits, berries and edible sea-weed of various kinds. Poi, the favorite food of all classes, was a slightly fermented paste made of cooked and pounded taro, a large bulbous root, in taste resembling an Indian turnip. They made a stupefying beverage by chewing the awa root, and from the sweet root of the ti plant fermented an intoxicating drink. The soft parts of the sugar-cane were eaten, but, with the exception of the manufacture of a beer called uiuia, no other use seems to have been made of it. Their food, wrapped in ti leaves, was usually cooked in heated and covered pits in the earth. Their household vessels were shells, gourd calabashes of various shapes and sizes, and platters and other containers made of wood.
The dress of the ancient Hawaiian was scant, simple and cool. The principal, and generally the only, garment of the male was the maro, a narrow cloth fastened around the loins. To this was sometimes added, among the masses, a kihei, or cloth thrown loosely over the shoulders. The females wore a pau, or skirt of invariably five thicknesses of kapa, fastened around the waist and extending to the knees. When the weather was cool a short mantle was sometimes added. Ordinarily the heads of both sexes were without coverings, and in rare instances they wore kamaas, or sandals of ti or pandanus leaves.