EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 177 



another. The different islands, as a rule, were not harnessed to one 

 another under the same political yoke ; even districts of the same island 

 were not unf requently under the independent sway of warring chiefs ; 

 so that for long periods the sej^aration, even the isolation, in matters 

 of dramatic art and practice was as complete as in politics. 



The method pursued by the kumu may be summarized as follows: 

 Having labored to fix the song, the mele or oli, in the minds of his 

 pupils, the havmana, he appointed some one to recite the words of 

 the piece, while the class, standing with close attention to the motions 

 of the kumu and with ears open at the same time to the words of the 

 leader, were required to repeat the kumu's gestures in pantomime 

 until he judged them to have arrived at a sufficient degree of per- 

 fection. That done, the class took up the double task of recitation 

 joined to that of gesture. In his attempt to translate his concepts 

 into phj^sical signs the Hawaiian was favored not only b}^ his vivid 

 power of imagination, but b}' his implicit philosophy, for the 

 Hawaiian looked at things from a physical plane — a safe ground to 

 stand upon — albeit he had glimpses at times far into the depths of 

 ether. When he talked about spirit, he still had in mind a form 

 of matter. A god was to him but an amplified human being. 



It is not the purpose to attempt a scientific classification of gesture 

 as displayed in the halau. The most that can be done will be to give 

 a few familiar generic illustrations which are typical and repre- 

 sentative of a large class. 



The pali, the precipice, stands for any difficulty or obstacle of 

 magnitude. The Hawaiian represents this in his dramatic, pictorial 

 manner with the hand vertically posed on the outstretched arm, the 

 palm of the hand looking away. If it is desired to represent this 

 wall of obstacle as being surmounted, the hand is pushed forward, 

 and at the same time someAvhat inclined, perhaps, from its rigid 

 perpendicularity, the action being accompanied by a series of slight 

 lifting or waving movements as of climbing. 



Another way of dramatically picturing this same concept, that of 

 the pali as a wall of obstacle, is by holding the forearm and hand 

 vertically posed with the palmar aspect facing the speaker. This 

 method of expression, while perhaps bolder and more graphic than 

 that before mentioned, seems more purely oratorical and less graceful, 

 less subtly pictorial and elegant than the one previously described, 

 and therefore less adapted to the hula. For it must be borne in mind 

 that the hula demanded the subordination of strength to grace and 

 elegance. We may at the same time be sure that the halau showed 

 individuality in its choice of methods, that it varied its technique and 

 manner of expression at different times and places, according to the 

 different conception of one or another kumu. 

 2.j3.j2— Bull. 38— U9 12 



