AHUILA OR FEATHER CLOAKS AND CAPES. 



Of all the Hawaiian feather work that has come down to us that comprised 

 under the above heading is not only the most abundant but also the most beautiful. 

 It is durable, of comparatively small bulk, and easily cared for, while its decorative 

 character has caused it to be sought for by the foreigners who have visited Hawaii. 

 The generous Hawaiian chiefs often made ahuula a token of their friendship, and so 

 feather capes or cloaks have made their way to America and Europe, and have been 

 gradually gathered into museums until there is not a large ethnological museum that 

 cannot show a specimen of some quality. It will be seen from the list subjoined from 

 how many localities the information has been gathered, and although the number is 

 great, I cannot believe that I have been able to track all that still exist. It is hoped 

 that the publication of this list, even incomplete, will lead to the discovery of more 

 that may be hidden in private cabinets or in the museums of small towns. 



Olona is so universally the basis of Hawaiian feather cloaks, that feathers 

 mounted on any other substance would be at once classed as foreign to the group. 

 This fibre conies from Tonchardia latifolia, a Hawaiian genus of a single species dis- 

 covered by Gaudichaud. This genus of Urticacse is closely allied to the better known 



ramie {Btclnueria )iivL-a)^h\\X. is even more 

 tenacious and durable. Although not 

 abundant, it is found in deep ravines and 

 well-watered mountain slopes all over the 

 group, and formerly it was cultivated for 

 its fibre much in the same way and places 

 as the fibre plants used for kapa or bark- 

 cloth. 



The stripped bark is soaked and 



then scraped on a long, narrow board 

 {laait kalii oloiia), with a scraper (iilii 

 kalii o/oiia ) made of turtle bone ( kiia- 

 lioiiii) or of pearl shell {papaiia^Mclc- 

 agiiiia Jiiaroaritifcra ) . The hank of fibre 

 is made fast to the small end of the board and the operator places himself over it as 

 shown in Fig. 43. The fibre is easily scraped out, and the spinner then twists it on 

 the thigh, using no spindle. Fig. 44. The cord or thread varies greatly in the net 

 used for cloaks, of which specimens are shown in Plates IX and XI. The Hawaiians, 

 as was the case with other Polynesians, had no looms,'' even of the rudest sort, and the 



3=The rude apparatus of the Maori is the nearest approach tea from the Caroline Islanders, or perhaps been evolved from the 

 loom that I can recall; and that seenis to have either been borrowed needs of the flax used by the Maori for clothing. 

 50 



»A>V 



FIG. 43. SCRAPING OLONA. 



