AHUULA OF KAUMUALII. 33 



present, and at my request, wrote out in Hawaiian the gist of Palekalulii's statement. 

 A few days later Palekalulii wrote out his brief statement. Both of these, and a rough 

 translation, I enclose. 



"Some weeks later I happened to meet Palekaluhi near the Court House, and 

 he said he had been in error in telling me that the name of the 'Malo' was 'Kanikawi' — 

 that the true name was 'Kanikawa' a name which described the sound which the 'em- 

 broidered' end of the 'Malo' made when it struck the king's thighs as he strode along. 



"The meeting of Kaumualii and Kamehameha off the harbor of Honolulu is a 

 matter of history. It is a reasonable explanation of the presence of the 'Malo' on Kauai 

 to suppose that the 'Malo' was given by Kamehameha to Kaumualii as a pledge of the treaty 

 by which Kaumualii surrendered the sovereignty of Kauai to Kamehameha, who gave it 

 to him to hold in trust for his son Kamehameha W. (Perhaps the Kaumualii 'Mahiole' 

 was given by Kamehameha at the same time. Who knows?) I assume that this ahuula 

 was a product of Hawaii, and not of Kauai, but this may be too great an assumption. 



"If this material is of any use to you please avail yourself of it. 



"Faithfully yours, 



"A. F. JUDD." 



The statement of Palekaluhi as taken down by Amana was: 

 "When Kamehameha desired Kauai (you must understand that there was no 

 war waged when Kamehameha obtained the island, because of the fact that he and its 

 king were relatives), he (Kaumualii) sent a messenger to Kamehameha to tell him, 

 'When the black cloud [kapa] covers (meaning his death), Kauai is yours.' Kameha- 

 meha desired that they two should confer. They met in the year iSoi [1810] on Oahu. 

 It was at that time that Kamehameha gave to Kaumualii the Malo, Mahiole and 

 Ahuula. Then Kaumualii called the Malo 'Kanikawi'. Kaumualii finally died and 

 these things" were kept by his retainers (Kahu) until the reign of Kalakaua who searched 

 for them and finally obtained possession of them from Kaumualii's retainers." 



This seems to account for the origin and present status of the ahuula described. 

 The malo is shown in Fig. 31. The teeth used as ornament are good specimens and 

 well drilled: the end ones are set in rows alternating with rows of what has been called 

 "palates of rays", but on examination I found the material consisted of small bundles 

 of fish teeth most ingeniously bound together by delicate fibres of olona into units of 

 the size of an ordinary molar tooth. 



But we will proceed in a more orderly manner to the measurement of this curious 

 feather decoration and return to a more complete examination of the details of the deco- 

 ration later. First a closely woven net of olona 4.5 inches wide and 1 1 feet and 10 inches 

 long, is covered on both sides by red iiwi feathers (the method of attachment has been 

 fully described in the Memoir to which this is a supplement, p. 51); to this on both 



'We have seen how the mahiole and ahuula were otherwise disposed. 

 Memoirs B. P. Bishop Museum, Vol. VII.— 3. 



