52 



HAWAIIAN STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



shaping and also use. The bottom is much rougher than the top which is shown in 

 Fig. 49. If it is to be considered a worked stone certainl}' a modicum of labor was 

 expended by the maker. Its use may be surmised from what we know of the few other 

 stone dishes that remain. Before some shapeless idol in some one of the many heian 

 ere6led to the god of this or that ///// or company of fishermen on some prominent cliff 



overlooking the fishing ground, this stone 

 was perhaps the platter for the offering of 

 fish which was to decay rapidl}- before the 

 unsmelling nostrils of the fi.sh god. In 

 those bleak and storm-swept places wood 

 would not last long. 



A well-finished bowl of sandstone 

 comes next and presents several peculiari- 

 ties. The thick upper edge is perfecftly 

 flat and the bottom spherical with a sort 

 of "punty" mark as if a knob had been 

 broken from its centre. If found else- 

 where it might pass for the cover of a cin- 

 erarv urn. It was found built into a dry 

 stone wall at some distance from recent 

 habitations, x'lltogether it does not pos- 

 sess a common Hawaiian physiognoni}'. 

 The material is a homogeneous coral sand- 

 stone from Oahu, quite the same that many 

 poi pounders were made from. It is slight- 

 ly chipped on one edge. Fig. 50, No. 1257. 

 In Fig. 51 we have a distinct dish (8580), 

 rude indeed but definitely a dish, and 

 as it was discovered on Molokai in a temple, and as tradition locally vouched for its 

 original use, we need not hesitate to class this with the vessels of the saudluary. 

 It held the smaller offerings and is of compact lava about twenty inches in diameter. 

 In the chapter on Worship the use of these stone receptacles will be fulh' discussed; 

 here it is only necessary to show that the Hawaiians made them. A more definite 

 temple dish, if dish it should be called, is shown in Fig. 52 (No. 6796). It was found 

 on Molokai and is well known to l)e the offertorium of a rude stone fish-god which is 

 with it in the Bishop Museum. Its form is peculiar in that it is very thick (6 in.) in 

 proportion to its diameter and has a projedling band around most of its circumference 

 interrupted only by the handle-like projeAion on which the idol rested. The greatest 



diameter including this baud is 13 in., the least 10.5 in. 



[384] 



FIG. 49. 



HAWAIIAN STONE DISH. 



