630 Fonwiidcr Collection of Hawaiian Folk-lore. 



ABOUT THE KOA TREE. 



Because I do not know where the koa tree came from, therefore I can not ex- 

 l)lain fully the cause of its being received here in Hawaii : perhaps it was brought from 

 a foreign country, or maybe it is indigenous to Hawaii. But let us investigate and ex- 

 amine one thing: the value of the wood. 



FIRST value: as firewood. 



The koa' is a valuable wood should a person desire to seek riches by producing 

 firewood, and this is the way to do it: hew down plenty of wood; cut it in short pieces, 

 each one a fathom in length, and put them in a pile, one fathom high and one fath- 

 om wide; j^ile up a full measure. When there are one hundred piles made, sell them 

 to those who desire firewood, at [the rate of] eight dollars ($8.00) per pile. That is 

 one value. Here are some of its uses : yoke for oxen, poi boards, boards for houses, 

 posts for houses, shingles, coffins, trunks, and doors. Out of koa lumber good trunks 

 and coffins and doors are made. Out of koa lumber also are made excellent bedsteads 

 called koa bedsteads. These bedsteads cost a great deal of money. 



HERE IS AXOTIIEK GREAT VALUE: THE CANOE. 



During the period when Hawaii was unenlightened, the people had already ac- 

 quired the art of constructing canoes.- They were able to construct canoes which 

 reached ten fathoms," more or less, in length, and smaller canoes which reached from 

 four to six fathoms in length. In depth, some of these canoes reached the armpit of 

 a person when he stood inside of one of them. However, a common man was seldom 

 seen in one of these large canoes, they were mostly used by the chiefs in the olden 

 times. The depth of the smaller canoes is like that we see nowadays. 



Concerning the adze: The adzes used for hewing canoes those davs were of 

 hard stone, ^ seldom seen nowadays. These stones are dififerent [from common stones] ; 

 they were hard stones. Those were the adzes used for cutting down the trees and 

 hewing the inside ; there were no regular axes those days. 



GOING UP TO CUT [tHE TREE]. 



When the canoe-building ]M-iest goes up and comes to the tree desired for a 

 canoe, he looks first at the main l)ranch. and where the main branch extends, towards 

 that side is the tree to be felled. If the tree, in falling, lands on another tree, the omen 

 is bad [it is not right] ; if it falls clear, it is good. 



'Koa (Acacia koa), a tine furniture wood, termed by 'An account is given of one Lulana, of Kipaliulu, 



some of late, Hawaiian malioganj'. Besides tlie two Maui, canoe-maker in chief to Kcawcnuiaumi, liuding 



kinds known as straight-grained and curly koa, there is two koa trees in the Hilo forest from whicli he made 



a variety of harder grain named koaic, as also koalauiiui. tun canoes, each twenty fathoms long and one and one- 



=While koa forests of all the islands furiiislied canoes, ''''df fathonis deep, the largest ever seen. (Au Oko:i, 



there were certain sections more favorable than others, i'>LC. 2g, 1870.) 



both as to size and quality of the tree and convenience 'The kind known as tilti, clingstone, the principal 



of getting the partly-hewn canoe to the shore. Ililo ipiarry of which w.is hi.uh up on the slope of Mauna 



and Koua districts of llaw.iii and Hana of Maui were Kea. 

 such. 



