172 



The Ancient Haivaiian House. 



on his canoe vo^-ages. No. 1357 on the other side, belongs to the set and has a curi- 

 ous formation on the handle which renders its use uncertain. The little spittoon, 

 No. 5009, was also a constant traveling companion of the Conqueror. The other tall 

 umeke (No. 5010) has an even more curious histor}-. It is made of two plates of 

 tortoise-shell (ea) fastened together by a narrow sti-ip of the same material in an 

 ingenious and water-tight suture: the bottom is of wood to which the ea is firmly 

 attached. The form of the rim is quite like that of the large wooden umeke in Fig. 144, 

 whose unusual form has greatly puzzled the writer. We know that this was Kameha- 

 meha's medicine bowl, and the legend attaches to it that it measured a dose ! Even 

 of sweet water it would be a generoiis one, for it holds a little more than three quarts ; 



FIG. 159. UMEKE OF KAMEHAMEHA I. 



but then the king was a mighty man. Does this suggest to us that the other umeke 

 were the utensils of the native kahuna lapaau or medicine men, and used in the pre- 

 paration of their remedies ? We know that the old Hawaiians possessed a consider- 

 able knowledge of the healing powers of herbs, and that it was b}- no means their 

 practice to administer insignificant doses. They seemed desirous of filling the patient 

 with their remedy through either end of the alimentary canal. 



The use of ea in this way may have had connection with the strong superstition 

 that drugs were more virile if treated and used in bone cups or triturated with bone 

 pestles. Ea was also used in Hawaii for small dishes and large combs, and the natives 

 certainly understood the process of softening it b}' heat to mould it to such shapes as 

 they required. Here should be noted the modern turned umeke shown in Fig. 147 

 because they are used even now in Hawaiian feasts, and sometimes find their \v3.y into 

 colleAions of Hawaiian umeke as modern imitations of old forms. This they are not, 

 and the covers which are really inverted dishes with a raised rim to serve as handle 



to cover or base to dish are apparently of Chinese motif. 



[356] 



