588 Pomander Collection of IlaivaUan Folk-lore. 



of jjlantino- in tlie dldcn time. Perhaps there were ntlier ways, Imt this is the way of 

 planting which T have learned. Perhaps there are many other things hut it is for 

 von to seek them. 



January 31, 1872. D. K. Kam.\kea. 



STORY OK TliE PAAIl'.LI. 



The bamhu' is one of the useful plants of Hawaii nei, but it is not like the other 

 trees which we have heretofore noted; it diti'ers materially. It is long, jointed, and 

 hollow inside; its leaves are long and narrow like the leaves of the foreign banibu which 

 we see here. This tree, however, does not grow everywhere, like other trees which 

 propagate themselves ; it must be planted by man. But some of you may ask the ques- 

 tion, "Where does the bambu come from that man may plant the same?" There- 

 fore, let us consider the source of the bambu and its uses. 



first: where the bambu came from. 



It is said that the bambu was brought by Hina from Kahiki. The sharpness of 

 the bambu at that time, strange to say, was on the outside. There were two plants 

 that she brought o\er; the bambu and a rush, and these were planted by the side of 

 the door. When Maui, the grandson of Hina, saw these plants growing by the side 

 of their door, he went to pull them; but before he could loosen them, his hands were 

 cut by the bamlni ; and when his grandmother saw that his hands were lacerated, she 

 turned the sharp edge of the bambu inward. ^ That is what we see now, the sharp 

 edge of the bambu is inside; therefore it is clear to us that Hina introduced the bam- 

 bu here in Hawaii. 



secondly: the value of the bambu. 



First: the bambu is used for fishing rods; that is one way the natives here in 

 Hawaii had of catching fish, by tying a string to the U\) end of the bambu, with a hook 

 attached on the end of the string; such a bambu is called a fishing rod. 



Second : as house battens ; that is another use of the bambu. In the olden times 

 small sized bambus lor battens ( or sticks ) for thatching a house; that was one of its 

 values. 



Third: the Hawaiians in the olden times used the bambu as a knife." But the 

 time for its use as such was when it was split u]); that is when it is sharp. Another 

 value of the bambu is in its use as a printing stick" for marking kapa made by the 

 women in the olden times, and even to the present da\'. It is split and shaped up as 

 the skilful kapa makers desire it. That is one use of the bambu. 



'Bambu (Bambitsa vulgaris), native name, ohe : sup- 'For this purpose the inner side of the bambu \yas 



posed to have lieen introduced from China. Tradition cut on split strips seldom over half inch in width in zig- 



crcdits it to Kahiki, the indefinite foreign land. zag, plain and ornate diamond, lozenge, or other pat- 



=Used as a knife bv selection of sharp-edged split t^'ni. principally in straight and angular Imes some fm,r 



|- - f o 1 j^ ^ij. ,„^.|,^,, ,„ icgth — at one end only. These prmt- 



^ ' ing sticks were about a foot long. 



