Ho, now comes the fun!
A meeting, a union—
The nymph, Koo-lau,
And the hero, Ke-í.
XXXVIII.—THE HULA O-NIU
The so-called hula o-niu is not to be classed with the regular dances of the halau. It was rather a popular sport, in which men and women capered about in an informal dance while the players engaged in a competitive game of top-spinning: The instrument of sport was made from the lower pointed half of an oval coconut shell, or from the corresponding part of a small gourd. The sport was conducted in the presence of a mixed gathering of people amid the enthusiasm and boisterous effervescence which betting always greatly stimulated in Hawaii.
The players were divided into two sides of equal number, and each player had before him a plank, slightly hollowed in the center—like the board on which the Hawaiians pounded their poi—to be used as the bed for spinning his top. The naked hand, unaided by whip or string, was used to impart to the rude top a spinning motion and at the same time the necessary projectile force—a balancing of forces that called for nice adjustment, lest the whirling thing reel too far to one side or run wild and fly its smooth bed. Victory was declared and the wager given to the player whose top spun the longest.
The feature that most interests us is the singing, or cantillation, of the oli. In a dance and game of this sort, which the author’s informant witnessed at Kahuku, Oahu, in 1844, one contestant on each side, in turn, cantillated an oli during the performance of the game and the dance.
Oli