

Selection of 1 iiiiher. 83 



of flight from enemies^^ or banishment, as often predicated of the immigrants by 

 gnessers at their origin. 



They lived on the shore and their little world was bounded by niauka (towards 

 the mountain) and 7iiakai (towards the sea), and on that ground timber was neither 

 abundant nor siiited to housebuilding. They had planted Hau {Pariiium tiliaccunt) 

 and Kou {Cordia subcordata) for shade, and the Ulu (Breadfruit, Artocarpus incisd) and 

 Niu (Coconut, Cocos micifcra) for food, but none of these is suited for building. The 

 native shore vegetation in most of the Poljmesian islands is scant and mean. Immi- 

 grant weeds have everywhere landed like the Polynesians themselves, but higher i:p the 

 mountain slopes, as high as vegetation reaches are dense forests of very valuable trees, 

 mainly of hard wood, and to these forests {naliclchele) the intending builder must go. 



In seledling a log for carving into an idol, of course priestly magic played its 

 part, and dreams and omens directed the seeker; so the canoe builder trusted to his 

 god, the friendly little elepaio (C/iasieii/pis)^ to indicate a proper tree neither worm-eaten 

 nor decayed, but I cannot say with certainty that any such supernatural intervention 

 was required in the seledlion of the few sticks of limited size used in the framing of an 

 Hawaiian house. The priest {ka/inna), who, in the infancy of a people, always has a 

 finger in every concern of his fellow men that conduces to the increase of his power or 

 property, had doubtless selec^ted the position of the intended house, that is, determined 

 what our Chinese neighbors would call its fniig sluii or lucky outlook ("wind and 

 water" rules), and had been duly paid with mats, kapa, coconuts, bananas, pigs, fish 

 or such other portable propierty as he most desired or his client was best able to pay, 

 and he seems to have allowed the man a respite until the work of building was com- 

 plete when he again intervenes, as we shall see later on. 



The seledlion of timbers was nevertheless no haphazard choice. The old 

 Hawaiians had a remarkable knowledge of trees and plants; they gave them names 

 and exploited their useful qualities in a way that their descendants have wholly for- 

 gotten. They were not likely to pick out a tree that was not durable, and they had a 

 building requirement that the posts and connecfting rafters, forming with the ground 

 a pentagon, should be, so far as each set went, of the same kind of wood; with this 

 exception^' they were free to use any durable and otherwise suitable wood. The best 

 houses, however, were generally built of naio {Myoponim sandwicense Gray), uhiuhi 



"The tale of Paao and others was of self-banishment and sorrow at leaving home, but there is little repining 

 in the land which gave them a refuge. 



"This arrangement must be followed or they would not be able to live quietly and comfortably in the house. 

 Cases have been pointed out to nie where this wise precaution had been neglected by the builder or his contractor, 

 and the owner could not live in the house until the defect had Ijeen remedied. In cases where the kahuna had made 

 a mistake in the location nothing but a complete removal of the unfortunate house would set things to rights with 

 the gods or their legates the priests. I have been told of one house that had to be moved twice, the gods were so 

 hard to suit. 



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