94 



HAWAIIAN STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



FIG. 93. STONE IMAGES OF FISH GODS. 



ship ; but the image makers used stone as well as wood, and of these some have siirvived, 

 and a few may be here noticed as works of stone, although their religious significance will 

 be treated more fully in another chapter. The oldest form as it appears to me is the 

 unhewn stone with the face of a human being sketched rudely on one end. Even 

 wooden idols have survived with no more shaping than this, and that the face or head 

 was not always considered necessary we see b}- the sketches of Dr. William Ellis* and 

 others, where a post rounded and decked with kapa makes a perfe6lly satisfadlorj' god 

 so far as appears. A capital type of this rude stone form is shown in PI. LXIV., a 

 stone of great weight which stood, when I first saw it (1S64) at the gate of a gentle- 

 man's premises in Kahuku, Oahu. Even in its fallen state it had its votaries, and 

 I have seen natives treat it with great respect, even making offerings of leaves. It was 

 50 inches high. After the death of the then owner and the absorption of the residence 



* This was not the missionary of the same name often quoted in this chapter, but the assistant surgeon to both vessels during Cook's 

 third voyage, and the author of a very good account of the vovage. 



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