192 



Ka Hana Kapa. 



In the matter of the etymology of the name there is more donbt ; it is, however, 

 certain that in rendering the Scriptures into the vernacnlar when the translators came 

 to snch a passage as in Psalm CIX, 29, "And let them cover themselves with their 

 own shame as with a robc^'' they had no Hawaiian equivalent for robe ; either malo 

 or pa'u was quite too scant to meet the demands of the passage, and so the modern 

 Jiolokii was used. "Ae uhi no lakou la lakou iho i ka hilahila me he holoku la." 



While the malo was (with the rare exceptions mentioned) a simple plain gar- 

 ment for use rather than for decoration, the pa'u 

 soon became complicated and much more than a 

 covering. First, the sheets were multiplied, and 

 often dyed of different colors; then came a change 

 over the outer sheet on which much care was ex- 

 pended in ornamentation, when it was not merelj^ a 

 darker color than that of the inner folds, it was ruled 

 or imprinted with attractive designs. Usually the 

 component layers were stitched together at one end 

 as was the ca.se in the kapa moe. (Fig. 55.) 



As in many ethnic religions the dance was an 

 important funAion of worship, although I do not 

 place it in .so high a position as some writers have 

 done. The sacred dance was one thing, the popular 

 hula quite a different, although sometimes con- 

 founded. I do not propose to discuss the Hawaiian 

 dances here, whether religious or secular in motive, 

 for this and other games and amusements will doubt- 

 less be treated fully in some subsequent publication 



in this series, but to the dance is due a development in pa'u decoration. The pa 11 hula 

 or dance skirt was distinct and often attractive. A common form was a yellow ground 

 with red and black figure stamped either along the lower border or in a broad band 

 down the front edge; .sometimes the exposed surface of the pa'u was covered with the 

 stamps or rulings; examples are given in Plates L, IM, N and W. The texture was 

 thin and soft so as not to interfere with the free motion of the hijjs so important a 

 factor in the genuine Hawaiian hula. 



When horses were introduced in the early part of the nineteenth century 

 another form of pa'u was needed, and although the kapa pa'u with its two long ends 

 just caught by the toe in the stirrup soon gave place to the foreign cloth with so 

 much more tensile strength, kapa was used for some time, and varieties of it were 



FIG. 114. HAWAIIAN KIUING r-\'U. 



