[Footnote 21: In the Hawaiian form of checkers, called konane, the board, papamu, is a flat surface of stone or wood, of irregular shape, marked with depressions if of stone, often by bone set in if of wood; these depressions of no definite number, but arranged ordinarily at right angles. The pieces are beach pebbles, coral for white, lava for black. The smallest board in the museum collection holds 96, the largest, of wood, 180 men. The board is set up, leaving one space empty, and the game is played by jumping, the color remaining longest on the board winning the game. Konane was considered a pastime for chiefs and was accompanied by reckless betting. An old native conducting me up a valley in Kau district, Hawaii, pointed out a series of such evenly set depressions on the flat rock floor of the valley and assured me that this must once have been a chief's dwelling place.]
[Footnote 25: The malo is a loin cloth 3 or 4 yards long and a foot wide, one end of which passes between the legs and fastens in front. The red malo is the chief's badge, and his bodyguard, says Malo, wear the girdle higher than common and belted tight as if ready for instant service. Aiwohikupua evidently travels in disguise as the mere follower of a chief.]
[Footnote 28: In Hawaiian warfare, the biggest boaster was the best man, and to shame an antagonist by taunts was to score success. In the ceremonial boxing contest at the Makahiki festivities for Lono, god of the boxers, as described by Malo, the "reviling recitative" is part of the program. In the story of Kawelo, when his antagonist, punning on his grandfather's name of "cock," calls him a "mere chicken that scratches after roaches," Kawelo's sense of disgrace is so keen that he rolls down the hill for shame, but luckily bethinking himself that the cock roosts higher than the chief (compare the Arab etiquette that allows none higher than the king), and that out of its feathers, brushes are made which sweep the chief's back, he returns to the charge with a handsome retort which sends his antagonist in ignominious retreat. In the story of Lono, when the nephews of the rival chiefs meet, a sparring contest of wit is set up, depending on the fact that one is short and fat, the other long and lanky, "A little shelf for the rats," jeers the tall one. "Little like the smooth quoit that runs the full course," responds the short one, and retorts "Long and lanky, he will go down in the gale like a banana tree." "Like the ea banana that takes long to ripen," is the quick reply. Compare also the derisive chants with which Kuapakaa drives home the chiefs of the six districts of Hawaii who have got his father out of favor, and Lono's taunts against the revolting chiefs of Hawaii.]
[Footnote 27: The idiomatic passages "aohe puko momona o Kohala," etc., and (on page 387) "e huna oukou i ko oukou mau maka i ke aouli" are of doubtful interpretation.]
[Footnote 28: This boast of downing an antagonist with a single blow is illustrated in the story of Kawelo. His adversary, Kahapaloa, has struck him down and is leaving him for dead. "Strike again, he may revive," urge his supporters. Kahapaloa's refusal is couched in these words:
"He is dead; for it is a blow from the young,
The young must kill with a blow
Else will the fellow go down to Milu
And say Kahapaloa struck frim twice,
Thus was the fighter slain."
All Hawaiian stories of demigods emphasize the ease of achievement as a sign of divine rather than human capacity.]
CHAPTER V
[Footnote 29: Shaking hands was of foreign introduction and marks one of the several inconsistencies in Haleole's local coloring, of which "the deeds of Venus" is the most glaring. He not only uses such foreign coined words as wati, "watch," and mare, "marry," but terms which are late Hawaiian, such as the triple canoe, pukolu, and provision boat, pelehu, said to have been introduced in the reign of Kaméhaméha I.]
[Footnote 30: Famous Hawaiian boxing teachers kept master strokes in reserve for the pupils, upon whose success depended their own reputation. These strokes were known by name. Compare Kawelo, who before setting out to recapture Kauai sends his wife to secure from his father-in-law the stroke called wahieloa. The phrase "Ka ai a ke kumu i ao oleia ia oukou" has been translated with a double-punning meaning, literal and figurative, according to the interpretation of the words. Cold-nose's faith in his girdle parodies the far-fetched dependence upon name signs common to this punning race. The snapping of the end of his loin cloth is a good omen for the success of a stroke named "End-that-sounds"! Even his supporters jeer at him.]