82 NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



which the gestures accompanied. Like everything else the Hawaii ans did it was 

 made the subject of extensive religious ceremonies and was accompanied by an 

 intricate form of worship in which Laka was the chief goddess. Naturally 

 there were many forms of the luila, some of them extremely lewd. The latter 

 class, unfortunately, have been used more than any other single thing to spread 

 the fame and infamy of Hawaii, and create an erroneous and distorted im- 

 pression of the Hawaiian race. Yet it should be understood that their dances 

 were, in the main, entirely chaste ; but, unfortunately, some of them were in- 

 tended for the gratification of the baser instincts and it is these, under the en- 

 couragement given by a certain class belonging to our own European civiliza- 

 tion, that are most frequently seen in our own times. 



The dancers, who were usually though not always women, wore the pa'u, or 

 hula skirt, about their waists, with wreaths of flowers about their heads and 

 shoulders. Occasionally dogs' teeth anklets, Jiogs' teeth bracelets and Avhales' 

 teeth ornaments were worn by the participants. The performers stood or sat 

 singly, or in companies, according to the hula being given, usually staying in 

 one place and moving their body and limbs in perfect time and in keeping with 

 the sentiment of the accompanying chant, which was accentuated with the various 

 sounds produced by a series of primitive musical instruments. It is a curious 

 fact that almost all the Hawaiian musical instruments were made use of in the 

 performance of the hula. Naturally the most important instruments were those 

 calculated to mark the crude intervals of time in their chanted songs. The 

 large drums, some of them three feet in height, with half that diameter, made 

 of hollow cocoanut stems over which shark skin heads were stretched, were played 

 l)y rapping with the finger tips and were especially prized. Other drum-like 

 instruments, with astonishing resonance, were made from large bottle gourds, 

 two of which were joined ])y inserting the neck of one within the other. 



Musical Instruments. 



To produce the sound desired, the gourd instrument, held in the hand by a 

 loop, was dropped on the padded fioor of the house and at the same time beaten 

 with the palm of the hand, thus varying the sound to accord with the action 

 and feeling of the accompanying song. The deep base of the larger drums was 

 supplemented by the rattle of lesser drums made from cocoanut shells with shark 

 skin heads, or by rattles of small gourds partly filled with dry seeds. Other 

 rattle instruments were made by splitting a long joint of bamboo for half its 

 length, to form small slivers, so that the free ends, in response to the lively 

 motion from the hands of the player, produced a curious swishing sound. A 

 still more primitive instrument was made of two sticks of hard, resonant Avood 

 which were struck together. 



The most ambitious musical instrument of the ancient Hawaiians and one 

 requiring unquestioned skill in its manipulation, was the nose flute. To make 

 the nose flute, a long, single joint of bamboo was used. One end was left closed 

 by the joint and three small holes bor(^d along the up]ier side, one near the 



