Sfo)ie Scu/ptHri)igs hi Relief frovi the Hajcaiian Islands. 37 



on,'° referring to his request of an old blind priest at Parea, Hua- 

 hine, for a repetition of one of the ancient prayers: "After great 

 persuasion, he consented, and assuming the crouching position, or 

 sitting as it were on his heels, he commenced . . . • " 



The writer is indebted to Dr. Brigham for the suggestion that 

 the figures represent two people asleep, the position of the head 

 following naturally the use of a hard pillow. 



The idea that the figures represent deities appeals to the writer 

 more than that of their being intended for mortals, following the 

 claim of two old natives, who asserted that the figures must be 

 gods since their faces looked upward. It is not to be expected 

 that the Polynesian would expend the amount of arduous labor 

 required to carve these figures so carefully, for any other than a 

 sacred purpose, and the position of the arms and heads, indicating 

 the act of eating or drinking, calls to mind the stories told of the 

 offerings to the gods and spirits of deified ancestors, of food, but 

 especially drink in the form of awa, which the gods were believed 

 to have consumed. Were the stone found on the shore instead of 

 a mile inland, it could be reasonably concluded that the figures 

 w^ere intended for Kuula, the fish god, and Hina his wife, whose 

 names are generally linked together. These gods were worshipped 

 at ever\' fishing ground and in any convenient form, from a shape- 

 less boulder to a well carved image. 



Figure 3 shows a side and two end views of a stone lamp of 

 basalt (Xo. 9338) purchased from the estate of the late W. E. H. 

 Deverill, of Kauai. Unfortunately no history of the circumstances 

 pertaining to its discovery have been preserved, but there are two 

 recent abrasions on the outer surface, which might well indicate 

 that the specimen was found when jDloughing — a frequent means 

 of discovery of many valuable stone implements in these islands. 

 The upper edge of the lamp has been broken off to a depth vary- 

 ing from one-half to one inch, but the break is an old one as is 

 shown by the soot clinging to the broken surface. The inner por- 

 tion is heavily coated with soot. The Hawaiian lamps have been 

 described already by Dr. Brigham," but the cup in this lamp differs 

 from that in other specimens in the Museum both in size and 

 shape. The usual form has a roughly cylindrical hole, with bot- 



'"Ibid. p. 210. 



'':Mein. R. P. B. Mus., vol. i, pp. 391-3C 



[127] 



