0» Hawaiian Rank. 300 



alii, laaiili alii, and kukacpopolo, as distinct grades of nobility, one above the other in 

 the order named. My reading and acqnaintance witli the ancient rnles of heraldry do 

 not correspond with such a classification. 



The ivoJii was a function, an office, not a degree of nobility. Tt had its peculiar 

 privileges, among which was the exemption from rendering the kapu-uioc to the sov- 

 ereign, the iiioi. Its duties were that of a prime minister, and on public occasions the 

 ivohi walked in front of the sovereign to see that the ceremonial was duly performed 

 and that everybody else, who was not exempt, duly observed the kapu-inoc. Like many 

 other institutions it tended to become hereditary. Thus the son of a zvohi under one 

 sovereign was most likel\' to become the li'olii under the son of that sovereign; but 

 when the dynastv changed the ic'o/;/-ship changed also. Thus the zvolii of Kumahana, 

 King of Oahu, was no longer the zvolii of Kahahana, who succeeded Kumahana as the 

 head of a new dynasty. Thus the icolii of Kalaniopuu, King of Hawaii, was no longer 

 the zi'ohi when Kamehameha I. had obtained the ascendancy. The ■cC'o/;/-ship was pecul- 

 iarly an institution on the leeward islands, Oahu and Kauai, and was only comparatively 

 lately introduced on Maui and Hawaii. While the office lasted the privileges attached to 

 it were exercised and enforced; when the office lapsed, the privileges ceased, and the 

 late incumbent was simply a naiu-pio, or a chief of less degree, as the case might be. 

 Keawemauhili was the wolii of his nephew I\i7va!ao, King of Hawaii ; Keliimaikai was the 

 7volii of his brother Kamehameha I.; but neither the children of Keliimaikai claimed, or 

 were awarded the privileges of a zcolii after the death of their parents. The prece- 

 dence that a zvoJii obtained over other nobles was in virtue of his office alone, and as tem- 

 porarv as the incumbency of that office. The last Hawaiian zvolii was Keliimaikai, the 

 aforesaid brother of Kamehameha I., and his son Kekuaokalani might have remained 

 Zi'olii under Liholiho, Kamehameha 11., had he not rebelled against him. 



The lo was not, as the Kiiokoa writer assumes, a specific name for one of the de- 

 gree of nobility. It was a patronymic, distinguishing a certain family on Oahu. The 

 first known in Hawaiian legends and history was Lo Lale, the brother of Piliwale and 

 Kalamakua, sons of Kalonaiki, the Oahu sovereign. Lo was a title or epithet exclusively 

 belonging to Lale's descendants. What the occasion of the title, or what kapus and priv- 

 ileges, if any, it conferred, I have been unable to ascertain. As a degree of nobility lo 

 was unknown throughout the group. As a title, or sobriquet, it was never assumed by 

 any one who could not clearly trace his descent from that first Lo Laic, lord of Lihue 

 and adjoining lands in Ewa and Waialua. 



The division of the nobility which the Kuokoa writer designates by the names of 

 alii papa and lokca-alii are unknown to me. They do not occur in the old meles or 

 kaaos, and I know not their origin. These, as well as the other divisions, which he 

 designates by the names of laaiili alii and kaiikau alii, were all recognized nobles, alii of 

 the papa alii or the aha alii; local circumstances and social conventionalities determining 

 generally for the time being the precedence due from one to the other. Their privi- 

 leges, prerogatives and ka])us, be they great or small, whether derived from mother or 

 father, were theirs by birth or inheritance. A chief of the papa alii may not deem it 

 l)racticable, expedient or prudent to exact those privileges and kapus at times, but his 

 right to their observance none could dejM-ive him of. During the frequent wars which 



