12 Bernice P. Bishop Museum — Bulletin 



Tt will be noted that these observations coincide with those of all the 

 earlier navigators, that flies were evidently a native introduction previous 

 to the appearance of European ships. That the house fly, Musca domestica 

 Linn., will travel long distances by small boats is now a matter of common 

 observation. Moreover, on this point there is the conclusive evidence by 

 S. C. Ball (225), who recently investigated the migration of insects over 

 sea. along the coast of Florida. 



Since the natives in their wanderings in the Pacific previous to the 

 appearance of white men, evidently took along their hogs and dogs, to- 

 gether with coconuts and other plants, it is only natural to conclude that 

 flies also traveled from place to place with them. 



That flies very early made their appearance in the Hawaiian islands, is 

 further indicated by the great development of the kahilis or fly flaps. Dr. 

 Brigham amplifies this point in his comprehensive review of Hawaiian 

 feather work (193, p- 14), in which he says: 



It is probable that a bunch of feathers used as a fly-flap was the primal 

 form of feather work. Flies (iwlo) were here though not in such abundance as 

 found by early explorers on other islands of the Pacific; but even for this useful 

 purpose the bunch of feathers was no doubt preceded by a bunch of leaves, 

 and the prototype of the kahili seems to have been a stem of that most useful 

 plant the ki {Cordylinc tcnninalis Kunth). On many of the islands of the Pacific, 

 a branch of ki was the symbol of peace and on the Hawaiian islands it shared 

 in early times with a coconut leaf the representation of high rank .... 



Very early the hand plumes became symliols of rank and on all public oc- 

 casions kahili bearers attended a chief, or while he ate or slept a kaakui brushed 

 away with small ones all troublesome insects. In public they were tokens ; in 

 private fly-flaps. 



Indeed, it is hardly necessary to draw upon the imagination to under- 

 stand the gradual development of the immense, symbolic kahilis with 

 shafts of twenty feet or more in length, used at funerals of royalty ; 

 especially when it is known that small fly-flaps of similar construction 

 have always been waved over the body at funerals in Hawaii to keep away 

 these obnoxious insects. 



In describing the Hawaiian fauna in 1850, Henry T. Cheever (33, pp. 

 105-6) says: 



Not a noxious beast, reptile, or insect existed on the islands when first made 

 known to Europeans. Now they have mosquitoes, fleas, centipedes, and scor- 

 pions. 



The snake, toad, bee, and all stinging insects of the latter sort are still un- 

 known. One would think the flea certainly indigenous, where now it is found 

 so much at home both with man and beast ; but the natives have an amusing 

 story of the first time they got ashore from a ship, through the trick of a sailor, 

 which is better to be imagined than told. 



Whether that be true or not, the name by which they call the flea is pretty 

 convincing evidence that it has not been known as long as some other things. 

 It is called uku lete, or the jumping louse, the uku being an old settler from 

 time immemorial, and nothing else they knew so much like the imported flea. 

 So they named the stranger the jumping tiku: it is one of the first aboriginals 



