Fornander notes that, in collecting Hawaiian chants, of the Kualii dating from about the seventeenth century and containing 618 lines, one copy collected on Hawaii, another on Oahu, did not vary in a single line; of the Hauikalani, written just before Kamehameha's time and containing 527 lines, a copy from Hawaii and one from Maui differed only in the omission of a single word.
Tripping and stammering games were, besides, practiced to insure exact articulation. (See Turner, Samoa, p. 131; Thomson, pp. 16, 315.)]
[Footnote 3: Emerson, Unwritten Literature, p. 24 (note).]
[Footnote 4: This is well illustrated in Fornander's story of
Kaipalaoa's disputation with the orators who gathered about
Kalanialiiloa on Kauai. Say the men:
"Kuu moku la e kuu moku,
Moku kele i ka waa o Kaula,
Moku kele i ka waa, Nihoa,
Moku kele i ka waa, Niihau.
Lehua, Kauai, Molokai, Oahu,
Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe,
Moloklni, Kauiki, Mokuhano,
Makaukiu, Makapu, Mokolii."
My island there, my island;
Island to which my canoe sails, Kaula,
Island to which my canoe sails, Nihoa,
Island to which my canoe sails, Niihau.
Lehua, Kauai, Molokai, Oahu,
Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe,
Molokini, Kauiki, Mokuhano,
Makaukiu, Makapu, Mokolii.
"You are beaten, young man; there are no islands left. We have taken up the islands to be found, none left."
Says the boy:
"Kuu moku e, kuu moku,
O Mokuola, ulu ka ai,
Ulu ka niu, ulu ka laau,
Ku ka hale, holo ua holoholona."
Here is my island, my island
Mokuola, where grows food,
The cocoanut grows, trees grow,
Houses stand, animals run.