8o Pomander Collection of Hawaiian Folk-lore. 



12. DIVINATION FOR END POSTS AND MAIN POSTS. 



In Numbers lo and ii i)osts and beam ])lates are fully explained. This number 

 will treat of end ])osts and main ])osts. 



Defects in the position of a house als|o lie with the side posts and main posts. If 

 the positions of the end ])Osts of a house are as in Fif^ure 3A, and a diviner comes and sees 

 such position of the end posts, he will say, if a king happens to be the owner of the 

 house: "The positions of the end posts near the main posts are defective," because the 

 two end posts adjacent to the main post are in opposition to the main post, and the true 

 exj^ression of the ]wsition made by the said end posts is that some of the kinj^'s men 

 will rebel against him, for, according to the character of the house timbers, the center 

 post is the king. Supposing, however, that the end ])osts stand as in Figure 3B, the 

 priest will then make an interiiretation of the real meaning of them. 



End posts adjacent to a main post. The end posts which are adjacent to the main 

 post in the position shown in the diagram are not properly placed ; they are in a repentant 

 position. It represents the end posts in a mourning attitude, predicting the death of the 

 owner of the house. 



Of the end posts (c) and (s), which are adjacent to a main post. If the end 

 posts were placed in the same manner as the end posts (c) and (s). the real interpreta- 

 tion is that those end i^osts indicate baseness, always opposing and quarreling, because 

 their position is that of contending one against the other. And if posts were standing 

 in the position rejiresented by (s) and (w) in the diagram, their character is the same as 

 that of the end posts adjacent to the main post. 



13. THE CONVEYANCE OF TIMBER TO THE SITE OF ERECTION 



Supposing that the timbers for a house were cut and brought from the place 

 where they were felled and left at the place intended for its erection, but the ground was 

 found unsuitable, and the location thought to be appropriate had been ])assed when the 

 timbers were on the way down, as for example : Nuuanu is the place where the timbers 

 were cut; said timbers being brought down and left at the sugar refinery," that being 

 the ground intended for the building of the house, but being judged unsuitable Peleula'"^ 

 was chosen as the best location. If it was intended that the timbers be taken back to Pe- 

 leula, then the diviner ])riest would say that the taking back of the timbers was im- 

 proper, and for that reason the location was called "A hole for the sand crabs."'" In a 

 house erected under these circumstances none of the occupants thereof would remain 

 alive, including the owners of the house and others who might dwell therein. The only 

 thing to do was that if the material was brought in the manner above set forth, and it was 

 thought that the location where the timber had been left was unsuitable, and the location 

 was changed to Peleula, a location supposed to be favorable, then the timber should be 



''The sugar rclinery referred to was the old custom streams join at Kukui ; named after a lizard goddess 



house, a three-story coral Iniilding which stood below who was successfully wooed by Palikca, the sacred chief 



Queen street, at the foot of the newly opened Smith of Koolau. 



street. The structure was torn down in the water-front "Sand-crah hole: As an ohiki's hole is open to all 



improvement of 1904. dangers, so an improper house location was termed a 



'Peleula is that section of Honolulu between Xuuanu "liiii ohil;i", the building being open to attacks of sick- 



and Pauoa streams from Vineyard street to where the ness, or other misfortune. 



