NOTES ON THE TEXT 
CHAPTER I 
*Haleole uses the foreign form for wife, wahine mare, literally “ married 
woman,” a relation which in Hawaiian is represented by the verb hoao. A 
temporary affair of the kind is expressed in Waka’s advice to her grand- 
daughter, “O ke kane ia moeia,” literally, “the man this to be slept with” 
(p. 418). 
*'The chief's vow, olelo paa, or “ fixed word,” to slay all his daughters, would 
not be regarded as savage by a Polynesian audience, among whom infanticide 
was commonly practiced. In the early years of the mission on Hawaii, Dibble 
estimated that two-thirds of the children born perished at the hands of their 
parents. They were at the slightest provocation strangled or burned alive, 
often within the house. The powerful Areois society of Tahiti bound its mem- 
bers to slay every child born to them. The chief's preference for a son, how- 
ever, is not so common, girls being prized as the means to alliances of rank. 
It is an interesting fact that in the last census the proportion of male and 
female full-blooded Hawaiians was about equal. 
*The phrase nalo no hoi na wahi huna, which means literally “ conceal the 
secret parts,” has a significance akin to the Hebrew rendering “to cover his 
nakedness,” and probably refers to the duty of a favorite to see that no enemy 
after death does insult to his patron’s body. So the bodies of ancient chiefs 
are sewed into a kind of bag of fine woven coconut work, preserving the shape 
of the head and bust, or embalmed and wrapped in many folds of native cloth 
and hidden away in natural tombs, the secret of whose entrance is intrusted 
to only one or two followers, whose superstitious dread prevents their re- 
vealing the secret, even when offered large bribes. These bodies, if worshiped, 
may be repossessed by the spirit and act as supernatural guardians of the 
house. See page 494, where the Kauai chief sets out on his wedding embassy 
with “the embalmed bodies of his ancestors.” Compare, for the service it- 
self, Waka’s wish that the Kauaj chief might be the one to hide her bones 
(p. 512), the prayer of Aiwohikupua’s seer (p. 3896) that his master might, in 
return for his lifelong service, “ bury his bones ”*—e kalua keai mau iwi,” and 
his request of Laieikawai (p. 546), that she would “leave this trust to your 
descendants unto the last generation.” 
*Prenatal infanticide, omilomilo, was practiced in various forms through- 
out Polynesia even in such communities as rejected infanticide after birth. 
The skeleton of a woman, who evidently died during the operation, is pre- 
served in the Bishop Museum to attest the practice, were not testimony of 
language and authority conclusive. 
°The manini (Tenthis sandvicensis, Street) is a flat-shaped striped fish com- 
mon in Hawaiian waters. The spawn, called ohua, float in a jellylike mass 
on the surface of the water. It is considered a great delicacy and must 
be fished for in the early morning before the sun touches the water and releases 
the spawn, which instantly begin to feed and lose their rare transparency. 
°The month Ikuwa is variously placed in the calendar year. According to 
Malo, on Hawaii it corresponds to our October; on Molokai and Maui, to Janu- 
ary; on Oahu, to August; on Kauai, to April. 
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