EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 15 



AVhen one considers the tenacious hold which all rites and cere- 

 monies growing out of what we are accustomed to call superstitions 

 had on the mind of the primitive Hawaiian, it puzzles one to account 

 for the entire dropping out from modern memory of the prayers 

 which were recited during the erection of a hall for the shelter of an 

 institution so festive and so popular as the hula, while the prayers 

 and gloomy ritual of the temple service have survived. The explana- 

 tion may be found, perhaps, in the fact that the priests of the temple 

 held position by the sovereign's appointment; they formed a hier- 

 archy by themselves, whereas the position of the kurrhu-liula^ who was 

 also a priest, was open to anyone who fitted himself for it by training 

 and study and by passing successfully the ai-lolo " ordeal. After that 

 he had the right to approach the altar of the hula god with the pre- 

 scribed offerings and to present the prayers and petitions of the com- 

 pany to Laka or Kapo. 



In pleasing contrast to the worship of the heimi, the service of the 

 hula was not marred by the presence of groaning victims and bloody 

 sacrifices. Instead we find the offerings to have been mostly rustic 

 tokens, things entirely consistent with light-heartedness, joy, and ec- 

 stasy of devotion, as if to celebrate the fact that heaven had come 

 down to earth and Pan, with all the nymphs, was dancing. 



During the time the halau was building the tabus and rules that 

 regulated conduct were enforced with the utmost strictness. The 

 members of the company were required to maintain the greatest pro- 

 priety of demeanor, to suppress all rudeness of speech and manner, 

 to abstain from all carnal indulgence, to deny themselves specified 

 articles of food, and above all to avoid contact with a corpse. If any- 

 one, even by accident, suffered such defilement, before being received 

 again into fellowship or permitted to enter the halau and take part 

 in the exercises he must have ceremonial cleansing {huihala). The 

 kuTiiu offered up prayers, sprinkled the offender with salt water and 

 turmeric, commanded him to bathe in the ocean, and he was clean. 

 If the breach of discipline was gross and willful, an act of outrageous 

 violence or the neglect of tabu, the offender could be restored only 

 after penitence and confession. 



The Kuahu 



In every halau stood the kuahu^ or altar, as the visible temporary 

 abode of the deity, whose presence was at once the inspiration of the 

 performance and the luck-bringer of the enterprise — a rustic frame 

 embowered in greenery. The gathering of the green leaves and other 

 sweet finery of nature for its construction and decoration was a mat- 

 ter of so great importance that it could not be intrusted to any chance 



•^Ai-lolo. See pp. 32, 34, 36. 



