1 68 



The Ancient Hawaiian House. 



Although all the umeke figured hitherto, except iu Fig. 154, have been pre- 

 sented uncovered, a cover was a necessary addition when used as a receptacle for poi, 

 which was attractive to flies as well as natives, and a fly in the poi was as offensive as 

 the proverbial fly in the apothecary's ointment. However dirty the surroundings 

 might be, long, dirty finger nails, grimy hands, and even that rarer thing a dirty 



FIG. 154. UMEKE WITH COVER: NO. 420. 



bowl into which the dirty hands freely dipped to extract the sticky poi, the most fas- 

 tidious native could stomach these, but a FI3' — we must get another umeke of poi! 

 We have noted that large flat gourds were often, indeed generally used for this pur- 

 pose, especially among the poorer class, the fine umeke usually had a cover made for 

 them as shown in Fig. 154, and this cover served at a meal for a dish or plate. Often 

 it is difficult to decide whether a round carved flat dish was such or primarily a cover 

 for an umeke. A lot of these round dishes ox pa are shown in Fig. 155. They cannot 

 be considered distindlivel}- Hawaiian as the form is found all over the world, and there 



[352J 



