3o8 Pomander CoUcction of Ihnvaiian PoJk-lorc. 



Under llic old ret^imc tliere certainly were ranks and degrees of nobility, well 

 understood and scrupulously observed, with their accompanying kapus and privileges. 

 A pio chief, or chiefess, out-ranked a niau-pio, or a naha, but these three classes could 

 claim the kapu-moc (prostration) from the other nobility and from the commoners, 

 and were exempt, I think, from rendering that observance to each other. The dis- 

 tinction between the three was social rather than jjolitical, and time and circumstances 

 generally determined how far the etiquette, due from each to each, should be enforced 

 or relaxed. 



To explain the relation of these three classes of the nobility 1 would say that by 

 "iiiiiii-pio" was understood the very highest cast, not only by descent but also by power, 

 such as the sovereigns of the islands, the inoi, their children — if the mothers were of 

 sufficient rank — and the aiinokii, or district chiefs. By /^/o was understood the children 

 of a brother and sister or half-brother and half-sister, whose parents were both niau-pio. 

 By tialia was understood the children of a father with his daughter, or an uncle with his 

 niece, both the parents being niau-pio. To illustrate: Keawe-i-kekahi-alii was king of 

 Hawaii and Kalanikauleleiaiwi was his half-sister, both from the same mother, though 

 with different father. Keawe and Kalanikaulele cohabited and their children Keeau- 

 moku (k) and Kekela (w) were pio chiefs as well as niau-pio. I'>ut Keawe had an- 

 other wife named Laamaikanaka from the powerful 1 family in Hilo. with whom he had 

 a son Kalani-nui-amamao. who was the oldest, who succeeded his father as nwi or sov- 

 ereign, who was a great niau-pio, but was not a pio like his half-brother Keeaumoku. 

 Kalanikaulele had other husbands, among whom 1 need only mention Lonoikahaupu, the 

 king of Kauai, with whom she begat Keawepoepoe, the ancestor of the present reigning 

 family, who was a niau-pio but was not a pio. And similar examples may be drawn from 

 all the islands. 



Again the same Keawe-i-kekahi-alii with his wife Laamaikanaka had a daughter 

 called Kaohiokaka. With this daughter Keawe cohabited and she bore a daughter called 

 Kekaulike. That daughter was a naha chiefess under the old heraldry. This Kekau- 

 like cohabited with her mother's brother Kalaninuiamamao and begat a son named Kea- 

 wemauhili. That son was a naJia, as well as his mother and hence he was frequently 

 called Keawe-wili-lua (Keawe-twice-turned). 



These three classes and the rest of the recognized nobility formed what was called 

 the papa-alii by a general term, or the alta-alii, the convocation of nobles, the "Rif- 

 tcrsfand." 



Below the three classes above named the papa-alii recognized several gradations 

 of nobility; but they were social rather than ])olitical distinctions. Thus a child born 

 of a niau-pio chiefess and a chief not a niau-pio took precedence of a child born to a niau- 

 pio chief with a chiefess not niau-pio. In fact the mother's rank invariably prevailed 

 over that of the father, with certain exceptions, as when the father publicly acknowl- 

 edged and adopted the child as his own, although the mother's rank mav not have been 

 equal to the father's. 



'i'he descent from being a niau-pio. a pio. or a ;;(//;(7, to one of the inferior degrees 

 of the alia alii ol the nobility, took several generations to accomplish. The writer in the 

 Kuokoa ne\vspa])er, to whom 1 have referred, speaks of wolii. lo alii, alii papa, lokca 



