624 HAWAIIAN ROMANCE OF LAIEIKAWAI [ETH. ANN. 33 
tame birds in their houses as pets, which fluttered freely about the rafters. A 
stranger unaccustomed to such a sight might find in it something wonderful 
and hence supernatural. 
CHAPTER XIII 
* A strict taboo between man and woman forbade eating together on ordi- 
nary occasions. Such were the taboo restrictions that a well-regulated house- 
hold must set up at least six separate houses: a temple for the household gods, 
heiau; an eating house for the men, hale mua, which was taboo to the women; 
and four houses especially for the women—the living house, hale noa, which the 
husband might enter; the eating house, hale aina; the house of retirement at 
certain periods, which was taboo for the husband, hale pea; and the kua, where 
she beat out tapa. The food also must be cooked in two separate ovens and 
prepared separately in different food vessels. 
“The place of surf riding in Hawaiian song and story reflects its popularity 
as a sport. It inspires chants to charm the sea into good surfing—an end also 
attained by lashing the water with the convolvulus vine of the sea beach; forms 
the background for many an amorous or competitive adventure; and leaves a 
number of words in the language descriptive of the surfing technique or of the 
surf itself at particular localities famous for the sport, as, for example, the . 
“Makaiwa crest” in Moikeha’s chant, or the “ Huia” of this story. Three 
kinds of surfing are indulged in—riding the crest in a canoe, called pa ka waa; 
standing or lying flat upon a board, which is cut long, rounded at the front end 
and square at the back, with slightly convex surfaces, and highly polished ; 
and, most difficult feat of all, riding the wave without support, body submerged 
and head and shoulders erect. The sport begins out where the high waves 
form. The foundation of the wave, honuwa, the crest side, muku, and the rear, 
lala, are all distinguished. The art of the surfer lies in catching the crest by 
active paddling and then allowing it to bear him in swift as a race horse to the 
hua, where the wave breaks near the beach. All swimmers know that three 
or four high waves follow in succession. As the first of these, called the 
kulana, is generally ‘a high crest which rolls in from end to end of the beach 
and falls over bodily,” the surfer seldom takes it, but waits for the ohwu or opuu, 
which is “low, smooth and strong.” For other details, see the article by a 
Hawaiian from Kona, published in the Hawaiian Annual, 1896, page 106. 
CHAPTER XIV 
” Honi, to kiss, means to “ touch” or “smell,” and describes the Polynesian 
embrace, which is performed by rubbing noses. Williams (I, 152) describes 
it as “one smelling the other with a strong sniff.” 
CHAPTER XV 
° The abrupt entrance of the great moo, as of its disappearance later in the 
story, is evidently due to the humanized and patched-together form in which we 
get the old romance. The moo is the animal form which the god takes who 
serves Aiwohikupua’s sisters, and represents the helpful beast of Polyne- 
sian folk tale, whose appearance is a natural result of the transforma- 
tion power ascribed to the true demigod, or kupua, in the wilder mythical tales. 
The myths of the coming of the moo to Hawaii in the days of the gods, and of 
their subjection by Hiiaka, sister of Pele, are recounted in Westervelt’s ‘‘ Legends 
of Honolulu” and in Emerson’s “ Pele and Hiiaka.”’ Malo (p. 114) places 
Waka also among the lizard gods. These gods seem to have been connected 
