14 B RICH AM ON HAWAIIAN FEATHER WORK. 



make the parcel appear well. The feathers from under the wings were called rr, those 

 over the rump///'/, while the tail feathers \\&r& piipt(a. 



The use of feathers as currency was common throughout Polynesia, as shell 

 money was with the Papuans. In New Zealand, while cloaks of large size were made 

 of the feathers of the Kiwi {Apteryx )j/aii/rl/i/\ etc.) , the fine black feathers of the 

 Huia {Heleroloclia ar/itiros/ris, Gould) were used in the Polynesian way for barter as 

 well as for cloak making. 



FEATHER KAHILIS. 



The name kahili is derived from the root verb /////, to braid or tie on, as feathers 

 to a stem, or stone adzes to a handle: with the article it becomes ka-/iih\ the plaited 

 thing. The kahili in its greatest development consisted of a pole sometimes twenty 

 feet high, to the upper end of which was attached the I/ii/ii or cluster of feathers. 

 This was sometimes of great extent; the Rev. C. S. Stewart, who was at the Islands 

 when Lord Byron brought home the bodies of Liholiho and Kamamalu (in 1825), saw 

 poles near thirty feet high with I//i/iiiimi/ii forming cylinders fifteen to eighteen inches 

 in diameter and twelve to fourteen feet long." The largest in the Bishop Museum is 

 thirty inches in diameter and four feet long. Neither Cook nor \'ancouver mention 

 these immense kahilis, for they never saw them, no royal funeral occurring during 

 their stay, and usuallv the poles were stripped of feathers when occasion passed, and 

 the feathers were preserved in calabashes until again required. 



It is probable that a bunch of feathers used as a fly-flap was the primal form of 

 feather work. Flies (iia/o) were here though not in such abundance as found by early 

 explorers on other islands of the Pacific; but even for this useful purpose the bunch of 

 feathers was no doubt preceded by a bunch of leaves, and the prototype of the kahili 

 seems to have been a stem of that most useful plant the ki ( Cordyliiic /fniiiualis^ 

 Kunth). Fig. 9, p. 16. On many of the islands of the Pacific a branch of ki was the 

 symbol of peace, and on the Hawaiian Islands it shared in early times with a coconut leaf 

 the representation of high rank. Its utility has survived its symbolism: and the native 

 obtains food and drink from the large saccharine root. At first he made a kind of fer- 

 mented beer, then taught by vicious whites the Hawaiian distilled this fermenting mass 

 making a smoky whiskey called in the vernacular, from the name of the rude iron still, 

 okolchao. The tough leaf is still the favorite wrapper for fish, and I have seen an unclothed 

 and so pocketless native carry a score of oranges, each fruit wrapped neatly in one of the 

 leaves still attached to the stem. These leaves are also acceptable fodder for animals. 



Very early the hand plumes became symbols of rank and on all public occasions 

 kahili bearers {iia laivckaliili ) attended a chief, or while he ate or slept a haakiti 



^iPi ivale Journal of a vuyagi- hi the Pacific Ocean, a?id lesidfiice at the Sand-wuh hiainh. in //ic min tSu-.'S. By C. S. Stewart. Xew 

 York, 1828. p. 10. See extract below. 



