94 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 



mention of the following marionettes: Ku^ Kini-MH, Hoo-lehelehe- 

 kVi. KiH-hi'i^ and Nihi-aumoe. 



Nihi-aumoe was a man without the incumbrance of a wife, an 

 expert in the arts of intrigue and seduction. Nihi-aumoe is a word 

 of very suggestive meaning, to walk softly at midnight. In Judge 

 Andrews's dictionary are found the following pertinent Hawaiian 

 verses ajjropos of the Avord nihi: 



E boopono ka hele i ka iika o Puna ; 

 E nihi ka hele, mai hoolawehala, 

 Mai nobo a ako i ka pua. o bewa, 

 O iuaiiia ke Akua, paa ke alauui, 

 Aole ou ala e biki aku ai. 



[Translation! 



Look to your ways in upland Puna ; 

 Walk softly, commit no offense ; 

 Dally not, nor pluck tbe flower sin ; 

 Lest God in anger bar tbe road, 

 And you find no way of escape. 



The marionette Ki'i-ki'i was a strenuous little fellow, an ilamuku, 

 a marshal, or constable of the king. It was his duty to carry out 

 with unrelenting rigor the commands of the alii, whether they bade 

 him take possession of a taro patch, set fire to a house, or to steal 

 upon a man at dead of night and dash out his brains while he slept. 



Referring to the illustrations (pi. viii), a judge of human nature 

 can almost read the character of the libertine Xihi-aumoe written in 

 his features — the flattened vertex, indicative of lacking reverence 

 and fear, the ruffian strength of the broad face; and if one could 

 observe the reverse of the picture he would note the flattened back- 

 head, a feature that marks a large number of Hawaiian crania. 



The songs that were cantillated to the hula ki'i express in some 

 degree the peculiar libertinism of this hula, which differed from all 

 others by many removes. They may be characterized as gossipy, 

 sarcastic, ironical, scandal-mongering, dealing in satire, abuse, hit- 

 ting right and left at social and personal vices — a cheese of rank 

 flavor that is not to be partaken of too freely. It might be com- 

 pared to the vaudeville in opera or to the genre picture in art. 



Mele 



E Wewebi, ke, ke ! 

 Wewebi oiwi, ke, ke ! 

 Punana " i ka luna, ke, ke ! 

 Hoonobo kai-oa,* ke, ke ! 



" Punana. Literally a nest ; here a raised couch on the pola, which was a sheltei-ed 

 platform in the waist of a double canoe, corresponding to our cabin, for the use of chiefs 

 and other people of distinction. 



'' Kai-oa. The paddle-men ; here a euphemism. 



