CHAPTER XII
[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 gods, 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 lashing the water with the convolvulus vine of the sea beach; forms the background for many an amorous or competitive 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 god 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 demigod, or kupua, in the wilder mythical tales. The myths of the coming of the moo to Hawaii in the days of the gods, 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 gods. These gods 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 god 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 assert, 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 demigods, 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 analogy, then, the earthquake which rends the earth is attributed to the god 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 worship.