6o 



HAWAIIAN STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



coconut leaflets and binding together half a dozen or more of these strings with dried 

 banana leaves. Such a torch, perhaps six inches in diameter and four feet long, gave 

 a bright biit smoky and odoriferous blaze.* In almost universal vise were strings of 

 these nuts four, six or ten meats for the slight household illumination required before 

 reading was introduced. The kukui was tended by a child who ignited the next as 

 the preceding nut was nearly spent by inverting the candle and when the kindling 

 was complete knocking off the burned coal. While burning the}- were often rested 



FICr 



59- 



LAMP FROM A LAVA BUBBLE. 



against a stone. Thej' gave a very intermittent and smellj- light but were in use in 

 the outlying districts as late as 1865, but since then the advent of kerosene oil has 

 finally extinguished them. 



The illumination we are most interested in here comes from the oil lamp which 

 was usually made of stone, although I have seen coconut shells and even a green 

 papaya fruit {Carica papaya^ used to contain the oil. In the Bishop Museum is a 

 luoodcH lamp. No. 12 12. The oil was expressed from the kukui or kamani nuts in the 

 stone mortars, and animal fat was often substituted. The wick was a strip of kapa 



* I well remember the first time I saw these torches used. The American Minister Resident. Dr. James McBride, and I were travelling 

 along the north coast of Hawaii in 1S64. We had loitered behind the rest of our party and darkness came upon us as we came to the brink of 

 the valley of Laupahoehoe. The road then led down into the valley many hundred feet below ns by a narrow, steep and dangerous path, in 

 some places overhanging the ocean, and we were glad to see the torch bearers in the valley coming to light our path. althouRh trusting to the 

 sure footed animals we were far down the i>ath before the torches came, and I could smell them a long way off. 



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