50 Notes on the Haivaiian Rat. 



the archers. In the pastime the small extinct rail previously 

 mentioned was sometimes substituted for the rat. 



We have no record in the Hawaiian Group of any contrivance 

 in the shape of a rat-trap such as occurs on some of the other 

 Pacific islands. The bow and arrow was probably depended on 

 to keep down the rats as vermin. As late as 1888, Mr. J. S. 

 Emerson secured from a native, about ninety years of age, en the 

 island of Hawaii, a small bow and arrow which was kept in the 

 house for shooting "mice".' Mr. Emerson set up a mark about 

 sixteen feet off, to test the old man's skill, and found him very 

 proficient. The bow was not used in warfare. 



The Hawaiians former!}- had an outdoor rack for protecting 

 food from dogs, hogs and rats. Sometimes it was a branched tree 

 set up outside the house, from the branches of which the food 

 bowls would be suspended in netted bags. In this museum are 

 two carved wooden racks for the same purpose. They are canoe- 

 shaped, notched on the upper edges, and were set across the ends 

 of upright posts. ^ 



One of the native superstitions concerning the rodent was that 

 if the baby's umbilical cord (some authorities state, the boy's pre- 

 puce also) were eaten by a rat the child would grow up a liar 

 and a thief. 



'Introduced, without doubt. One or two references to the probable ex- 

 istence of a native mouse, as well as a rat, have been met with, but on what 

 grounds it was not stated. Cook and King (Cook's Third Voyage, London, 

 1785, Vol. II, p. 228, and Vol. Ill, p. 117 respectively) both state that there 

 were only three mammals in the Hawaiian Islands, the dog, hog and rat, re- 

 sembling those seen at every other island touched at. King spent several 

 weeks ashore and had full opportunity for observing the mouse were it pres- 

 ent. The Hawaiian term for the rat was iole, and the same term in its vary- 

 ing dialectic forms was found among other Polynesians with the identical 

 application. The ear]y Hawaiian biological nomenclature was very profuse 

 and apparently exact as to variety. To quote two examples only, there were 

 over sixty terms for varieties of taro ; and three or four terms for the iish 

 iilua in its different stages of growth, although all stages were recognized as 

 belonging to the same fish. There is little question that had there been two 

 native rodents the ancient Hawaiians would have used two different terms. 

 As the old systems became obsolete through foreign influence, the Hawaiians 

 seemed to lose their aptitude in "giving a thing a name." The introduced 

 mouse was known as iole liilii, "little rat", and the wharf rat iole itui, "big 

 rat", which term was also applied to the rabbit. 



^B. P. B, Museum Memoirs, vol. ii, fig. 67, p. 205. 



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