Thus Maikoha and his daughters became the [[66]]chief gods of the kapa-makers; but other ancestral gods were also found from time to time as some new step was taken in perfecting the art.
Ehu, a man, was made the aumakua of kapa-dyers because he learned how to dip the cloth in dyes and give it color. He discovered the red dye in the blood of the kukui[5] tree; therefore prayers were offered to him and sacrifices laid on his altar when the kapa-maker desired to color some of the work.
A small corner in a house in the kapa-field usually had a very small pile of stones called “the altars.” Here small offerings of leaves or fruit could be placed while the worshipper chanted his prayer.
Kapa-dyers searched forests for trees and plants which could give life-blood for different dyes. The sap of these plants was carefully put in bamboo joints and carried to the place where the pounders sang and worked.
Offerings of leaves and fruits and flowers were made to Ehu from time to time while the dyes were being collected as well as when they were used to color the kapa.
Sometimes the sheets were spotted by sprinkling colors over them. Sometimes they were marked in lines and figures by using bamboo splints or bamboos with ends pounded into brush-like [[67]]fibres. Stone cups were kept in the kapa-fields for the dye and the marking-splint.
Sometimes torn-up pieces of dyed kapas were pounded up with new sheets, producing a mottled effect. White kapas of the best texture were used in the temples to cover the gods during certain parts of the temple ceremonies. They were also used to mark a strict tabu. When kapa was laid on an object, it meant that it was not to be touched under pain of punishment by the guarding aumakua. Fastened to a staff and placed in a path, it meant that this path was tabu. It was in this way that tabu standards were placed around the temples.
A kapa dipped in a black dye was kept for the death covering, especially for those of very high rank.
Sometimes the perfumes of sweet flowers or the oil of such trees as the iliahi[6] (sandalwood) were pounded into the kapa while it was being made. The perfumes were made in this way. The sweet-smelling things were placed in a calabash and covered with water. Hot stones were put in the water and the fragrance drawn out of the plants. The water was boiled away until the perfume became very strong. This was done with the sweet-scented flowers of the niu[7] (coconut) and of the lau-hala,[8] and [[68]]the wood of the iliahi and other fragrant plants.
When the kapas were perfumed, they were dried inside a house so that the fragrance should not be lost.