Hawaiian Traditions | Page 70 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 18, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Captain Cook

Around the 1400-1500s, the land was broken down into ahupuaʻa, ʻili and other physical subdivisions. All of the land was owned by the ruling chief. Each ahupuaʻa in turn was ruled by a lower chief, or aliʻi ʻai. He, in turn, appointed an overseer, or konohiki. (The common people never owned or ruled land.)

Each ahupuaʻa had its own name and boundary lines. Often the markers were natural features such as a large rock or a line of trees or even the home of a certain bird. An ahupuaʻa in a valley usually used its ridges and peaks as boundaries.

In ancient Hawaiʻi, there were no “towns,” “villages” or “cities,” in the modern context. Over the years, communities across the Islands grew. Here, the focus is on an area of South Kona on the Island of Hawai‘i.

Kealakekua translates as ‘pathway of the gods’ and is one of the most significant historic and cultural places in Hawaiʻi. It was selected by the aliʻi as one of the seven royal centers of Kona in the 1700s, because of its sheltered bay and abundance of natural resources.

Kaʻawaloa (meaning ‘the distant ʻawa plant’ and another Royal Center) has a flat, fan-shaped lava peninsula near sea level, which rises gradually to the edge of the 600-ft Pali Kapu O Keoua. These forty acres of land define the northwest side of Kealakekua Bay. It was where Cook was killed.

An obelisk monument commemorating Captain Cook was constructed in 1874, near the spot where Cook died. (Contrary to urban legend, the monument site is not owned by the British Government; ownership is in the name of the British Consul General (the individual) – a representative would check in with DLNR, from time to time.)

About 40-years after Cook’s death, the American Protestant missionaries arrived and established one of the earliest mission stations in Hawai‘i at Kaʻawaloa in 1824.

In the early 1830s it took one year or more for mail to reach the Islands from the continent, coming by way of Cape Horn. When the transcontinental railroad was built, it took about a month.

Prior to 1854 there was no regular mail service on the Islands. Letters were forwarded by chance opportunities. With expanding mail volumes, post offices were set up, often in a central store or business in the community. With growing communities, there was some uncertainty over postal facility names, apparently creating some confusion.

In the mauka area of Kealakekua and Ka‘awaloa, coffee started to thrive. “Coffee … since there weren’t very many other opportunities, was hung on to desperately by the farmers”. (Sherwood Greenwell – A Social History of Kona)

Coffee plants came to Kona via Hilo. In 1825 an English agriculturist named John Wilkinson, who in his younger years had been a planter in the West Indies, arrived at Honolulu on the frigate Blonde – along the way, he left some plants in Hilo. (Kuykendall)

Wilkinson planted coffee in Mānoa Valley in the vicinity of the present UH-Mānoa campus; from a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of O‘ahu and neighbor islands.

In 1828, American missionary Samuel Ruggles took cuttings from Hilo and brought them to Kona. Henry Nicholas Greenwell grew and marketed coffee and is recognized for putting “Kona Coffee” on the world markets.

At Weltausstellung 1873 Wien (World Exhibition in Vienna, Austria (1873,)) Greenwell was awarded a “Recognition Diploma” for his Kona Coffee. (Greenwell Farms)

Writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) seemed to concur with this when he noted in his Letters from Hawaiʻi, “The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it what you please.”

Then, “Captain Cook’s name has received a new honor. The Captain Cook Coffee Company, of Kealakekua, Hawaii, has filed articles of incorporation, with capital stock of $60,000, of which $50,000 are subscribed.”

“Accompanying the articles is a list of property of WW Bruner acquired by the new corporation, in which the copyrighted name of “Captain Cook Coffee” Is set forth at a valuation of $2,000.”

“The company consists of W. W. Bruner, president and treasurer; AWT Bottomley, WL Stanley, WT Lucas, Thomas A. Honan, secretary, and M. R. Jamieson, auditor; all being stockholders except the latter.”

“Bruner owns 2196 of the 2500 shares subscribed and the rest own one each. The Bruner property, including a coffee ranch, etc, is taken over at a valuation of $50,000 including the $2,000 Captain Cook trademark.” (Hawaiian Star, July 22, 1905)

Captain Cook Coffee Co Ltd is one of the oldest existing coffee companies in Hawai‘i. Since the 1880s, Captain Cook has been growing and processing raw green Kona coffee. (CCCC)

Captain Cook Coffee Co. Ltd and H Hackfeld and Co. (later American Factors, Amfac) acted as the “middle men” or factors between the local farmers and the world coffee market.

American Factors advanced farm necessities and foodstuffs through affiliated stores (mostly operated by Japanese merchants) under the condition that farmers were to pay for their merchandise in coffee once the harvest was complete.

All this coffee was processed at company mills, American Factors’ in Kailua and Captain Cook’s at the mill on Napo‘opo‘o Road. In this way, two companies dominated the industry with the farmer having no control over the value of his crop. (Kona Historical Society)

Back to mail … “And the mail used to be quite an excitement. The old post office used to be – when I was a kid – in the old People’s Bank of Hilo building which is where the Bank of Hawai‘i is today. … And everybody would come to the post office to get their mail. Mail was quite an experience….”

“Eventually it was found that it would be practical or be convenient for the people up here to have another post office and so a post office was (opened) in the Captain Cook Coffee Company building. And the postmaster was the bookkeeper of Captain Cook Coffee Company.”

“And the name became Captain Cook (post office) because it was in Captain Cook Coffee Company’s building and was run by Captain Cook Coffee Company.”

“It could have been called Ka‘awaloa (post office) if they wanted to name it the name of the land.” (Sherwood Greenwell – A Social History of Kona)

It’s like “Up in Waimea, it’s called ‘Kamuela’ because the post office is called ‘Kamuela’ (even though) the place is called ‘Waimea.’ But (the post office) couldn’t be called ‘Waimea’ when they put a post office in because there was already a Waimea post office on Kauai.” (Sherwood Greenwell – A Social History of Kona)

By the 1930s there were more than 1,000 coffee farms and, as late as the 1950s, there were 6,000-acres of coffee in Kona. But in the mid-1950s, Captain Cook Coffee Co and American Factors got out of the coffee business.

Several coffee cooperatives formed to market Kona’s crop, among these being Sunset Co-op , which took over operations at the Napo‘opo‘o Mill, which is currently run by Kona Pacific Farmers Co-op. Mountain Thunder Coffee took over Captain Cook Coffee’s building in Kainaliu. (Kona Historical Society)

So, what is now known as the community of ‘Captain Cook’ was named for its post office, in the premises of the Captain Cook Coffee Co. Ltd. (The only place in the United States where coffee is grown commercially is in Hawaiʻi.)

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October 17, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Fishing

Hawaiians had five methods of fishing: spearing, hand-catching, baskets, hook and line and nets.

There were two kinds of spearing fish, below and above water (above-water spearing was very rarely used.) Below water was the most important; the spear used by the diver was a slender stick, 6 to 7 feet long, made of very hard wood and sharply pointed on one end.

Some fishermen dive to well-known habitats of certain fish and lobsters and, thrusting their arms under rocks or in holes, bring out the fish one by one and put them into a bag attached for the purpose to the loin cloth. Women frequently do the same in shallow waters, and catch fish by hand from under coral projections.

There are two ways of octopus fishing. In shallow water the spear is used. Women generally attend to this. Those caught in shallow waters vary from 1 to 4 feet in length, but the larger kinds live in deep water always and are known as blue-water octopus.

Deep-water octopus are caught with cowries; one (or more) of these shells is attached to a string with an oblong pebble on the face of the shell. A hole is pierced in one end of the back of one of the shells through which the line is passed. A hook whose point stands almost perpendicular to the shaft or shank is then fastened to the end of the line.

The fisherman having arrived at his fishing-grounds first chews and spits on the water a mouthful of kukui (candle-nut) meat which renders the water glassy and clear; he then drops the shell with hook and line into the water and swings it over a place likely to be inhabited by an octopus.

The octopus, when in its hole, is always keeping a lookout for anything eatable that may come within reach of its eight arms. The moment a cowry is perceived, an arm is shot out and the shell clasped; one arm after the other comes out.

Finally, the whole body is withdrawn from the hole and attaches itself to the cowry, which it closely hugs, curling itself all around it.

It remains very quiet while being rapidly drawn up through the water, till, just as its head is exposed above water it raises it, when the fisherman pulls the string so as to bring its head against the edge of the canoe and it is killed by a blow from a club which is struck between the eyes.

Torch-light fishing is practiced on calm dark nights. The fish are either caught with small scoop-nets or are speared. Torch-light fishing is always done in shallow water where one can wade (walking without a splash, that would disturb the fish.) The torches are made of split bamboos secured at regular intervals with leaves, or of twigs of sandal-wood bound together.

There were four kinds of basket fishing. One had a bonnet shape, woven from the ‘ie‘ie vine/shrub; it was used to catch shrimp in streams. The second is with a small basket made from the vines of morning glory. A light framework of twigs is first tied together and then the vines, leaves and all, are wound into a basket about 3-4 feet in circumference and 1 and a half deep.

Pounded shrimp and cocoa-nut fiber are occasionally placed at the bottom of the basket for bait, but usually the scent of the bruised and withering leaves seems to be sufficient.

Women always attend to this kind of fishing. They wade out to suitable places, generally small sandy openings in coral ground or reef, and let the baskets down suitably weighted to keep them in position, and move away to let the fish enter. She then grabs the basket and deposits the caught fish into a gourd, and sets the basket in a fresh place.

The third kind of basket is shallow, of about the same size as the above but wider mouthed, used in deep water for catching a small, fiat fish called ‘uiui’ that makes its appearance at intervals of from ten, fifteen, or twenty years. In these baskets cooked pumpkins, half-roasted sweet potatoes, or raw ripe papayas were placed for bait.

The fourth kind of basket is the largest kind used in fishing by the Hawaiians. These are round, rather fiat baskets, 4 to 5 feet in diameter by 2½ to 3 in depth, and about 1½ Ii across the mouth. A small cylinder or cone of wicker is attached by the large end to the mouth and turned inward towards the bottom of the basket.

The fishermen generally feed the fish (coarse, brownish-yellow alga, ripe bread-fruit, cooked pumpkins, half-roasted sweet potatoes and papayas) for a week or more before taking any, using a large basket of the same kind, without the inverted cylinder and wider in the month, to allow the fish free ingress and egress.

After a week or two of feeding they become tame, and baskets full of fish can be drawn up in the taking basket without in the least disturbing those that are still greedily feeding in the feeding basket.

For fishing with rod, hook and line the bait most liked is shrimp; earthworms are sometimes used and any obtainable fry of fish.

The fisherman takes a handful of shrimps, baits his hooks, and then, bruising the remainder and wrapping it up in cocoa-nut fiber, ties it with a pebble on the line and close to the hooks. The bruised matter spreads through the water when the line is dropped and serves to attract fishes to the vicinity of the hooks.

For hook-and-line fishing practiced in deep water, bonitos and lobsters are the usual bait; for lack of these any kind of fish is used. For deep-sea fishing the hook and line are used without rods, and our fishermen sometimes use lines over 100 fathoms in length.

There are two general divisions of the kinds of nets in use here, the long nets and the bag or purse nets. The finest of the long nets has a mesh one-half inch wide. It is generally 1½ fathoms in depth and from 40 to 60 fathoms in length.

It is used to surround and catch the small mullets and awa in shallow waters for the purpose of stocking fish ponds. Small pebbles, frequently ringed or pierced, are used for sinkers; pieces of hibiscus and kukui tree for the floaters. Nets of 1 to 2 inch mesh are used for the larger mullet.

The finest of all kinds of nets (nae) has only one-fourth inch mesh. The ‘pua’ net is for young mullet fry for stocking ponds or for eating.

This net is generally a piece, a fathom square, attached on two sides to sticks about 3 feet in length and fulled in, the bottom rope being shorter than the upper one and forming an irregular square opening to a shallow bag, which is supplemented by a long narrow bag about 3 or 4 inches wide and 2 feet deep. (All of the information here is from Hawaiian Fishing Implements and Methods of Fishing, Emma Metcalf Beckley Nakuina)

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October 13, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cooking

Ahi (fire) was started by a fire plow which consisted of two pieces of dry wood, usually hau. The larger flat stick (ʻaunaki) was held in place on the ground or mat by the feet of the fire maker who sat before it.

He held firmly in his hands a slender stick (ʻaulima) which he moved (heahiʻa, a contraction of he ahi hiʻa) by firm forward strokes over the lower one.

This plowing motion produced a groove in the lower stick and caused wood dust (hāhā) to accumulate at the forward end. In about a minute heat from the friction caused the wood to smoke and sparks to appear in the wood dust.

The lower stick was then lifted, turned over, and the sparks poured onto the fibers (pulu) of a dry coconut husk, or sometimes on kapa.

The sparks burst into flame when the kindling material was blown upon by mouth, with a bamboo blower (ʻohe-puhi-ahi), or waved vigorously in the air. The wood for cooking was lighted by fire secured in this way. (Mitchell)

Hawaiians used several means in cooking food: Baking (kālua in the imu,) Broiling (kō‘ala, kunu, pālaha, olala and pūlehu on hot coals,) Steaming (hākui and puholo with hot stones) and Broiling wrapped food (lawalu, wrapped in leaves over a fire.) (Titcomb)

Baking (kālua) was and still is done in an earth oven, or imu (old spelling is umu). The oven is prepared by digging a hole in the ground; a fire is laid and stones are placed on it to the depth of two or three stones, or enough to fill the hole.

The fire should be so laid as to burn briskly and heat the stones red hot. Embers are then removed, the stones moved to make a smooth surface.

A thick layer of banana leaves, or a layer of banana trunks, split lengthwise, is laid over the hot stones, then more leaves, banana or ti leaves and then the food to be cooked.

All kinds of foods are put into the imu together; families often shared an imu. The imu is covered with leaves after the food has been placed and then with earth to hold in the heat. (Tticomb)

When large hogs were cooked and rocks place in the cavity, the hog was wrapped in coarse kapa and mats. The hog was left until the stones had cooled, then the wrappings were removed. The cooked meat on the inside was cut away and eaten. The outer, under-done parts were cut into pieces and placed in the imu for recooking. (Mitchell)

Broiling food (kōʻala, kunu, pūlehu, pālaha, olala) using hot coals (kō‘ala) or hot ashes (pūlehu) was a common way to cook if a meal was prepared out in the fields away from home or if the small amount of food being prepared did not warrant use of an imu.

Kunu was a term almost synonymous with kōʻala, but it implied that great care had been taken in preparation. Pūlehu (heaped ashes) was cooking by shoving the food into a heap of hot ashes and embers; sweet potato, breadfruit and banana were cooked in this manner.

Pālaha (flattened out), a term used chiefly for land animals―broiling a flattened out piece of flesh. Olala was broiling by holding over the coals and turning so that all sides were heated. Dried fish did not need actual cooking, merely heating a little.

Food was cooked by being spread out flat on a level bed of coals, or it was warmed over or near a fire and periodically turned. Breadfruit and unripe bananas could be broiled this way in their skins.

Steaming in closed calabashes with tight-fitting lids (hakui, puholo) included pork, fish and fowl. These were usually heavy wooden bowls made especially for this type of cooking. The vessels were lined with ti leaves.

Flesh foods, taro leaves and perhaps other greens such as tender sweet potato leaves were added. Hot stones surrounded the food and water was added as needed to form steam.

After several hours in the closed calabash the food was tender. These “fireless cookers” were sometimes filled and carried on journeys and the food was consumed at the destination. (Mitchell)

The ki (ti) leaf was a most useful article to the Hawaiians in caring for food. The leaf is long and wide (20 in. x 6 in. is an average size,) smooth, shiny, tough, and, except for the midrib, the veins are unobtrusive.

It has no odor and is clean and fresh looking. Small foods were wrapped in a ti leaf laulau piʻao, larger in a flat bundle called laulau lāwalu.

Broiling wrapped food (lāwalu) was used a great deal. Food that had been cut into pieces, or small fish that would be lost in an imu, or burned crisp if broiled, were wrapped in leaves of the ti, occasionally in leaves of the wild ginger, which is said to have added a delicious fragrance to the fish.

The leaf bundle was toasted over the open fire, turning it occasionally and the food was cooked when the juice ceased to drip from the bundle. Mullet was “cooked with such perfection that when the banana leaves in which it had been steamed were taken off, it had received hardly a slight alteration in form and color.” (Titcomb)

The food was placed in containers to cool and was served cold. (Lots of information here is from Titcomb and Mitchell.)

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Sweet potato pulehu cooking

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Laulau (Illustrating wrapped food for cooking)

October 3, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Ahole Hōlua

“A fair road leads across a barren a-a flow to Miloli‘i, the largest and best specimen of an exclusively Hawaiian village on the Island, which is seldom visited.”

“It is splendidly situated by a sand beach, the sea coming right up to the yard walls, and is inhabited by a rather large population of Hawaiians, who prosper through the fishing which is almost phenomenally good.”

“A fair trail leads south to Honomalino, where there are no houses, but a splendid sand beach, where turtle abound. The trail leads south, along the beach, to the Okoe landing, where there is only one house, and to Kapu‘a, used as a cattle shipping point, where there are two houses.”

“Just south of this is Ahole, where there is a perfect papa hōlua, about 400 to 500 feet long, appearing as if it had been built but yesterday.” (Kinney, 1913)

Hōlua are massively constructed ramps, made of stacked stone, that were used as tracks for wooden sleds by the ancient Hawaiians.

The flat slope was covered with grasses to make the narrow fragile sleds able to reach high rates of speed on their downward runs. It starts with a running platform along which the sledder raced before flopping down on the sled at the beginning of the slope down. (NPS)

Hōlua sledding was restricted to the chiefs. A track of rock, layered with earth and made slippery with grass, was made for tobogganing on a narrow sled.

Hōlua sledding was the most dangerous sport practiced in Hawai‘i. The rider lies prone on a sled the width of a ski and slides down a chute made of lava rock.

The sled or papa consisted of two narrow and highly polished runners (three inches apart,) from 7- to 18-feet in length, and from two to three inches deep. The papa hōlua (canoe sled) is a reflection of the double-hulled canoe.

The two runners were fastened together by a number of short pieces of woods varying in length from two to five inches, laid horizontally across the runners.

“Coasting down slopes… Sliding on specially constructed sleds was practiced only in Hawaii and New Zealand,” wrote historian Kenneth Emory. “The Maori sled, however, was quite different from the Hawaiian… One of the Hawaiian sleds, to be seen in [the] Bishop Museum, is the only complete ancient sled in existence.”

“The narrowness and the convergence of the runners toward the front should be noticed. Coasting on these sleds was a pastime confined to the chiefs and chieftesses.”

The Reverend Hiram Bingham provides a descriptive account of this sport: “In the presence of the multitude, the player takes in both hands, his long, very narrow and light built sled, made for this purpose alone, the curved ends of the runners being upward and forward, as he holds it, to begin the race.”

“Standing erect, at first, a little back from the head of the prepared slippery path, he runs a few rods to it, to acquire the greatest momentum, carrying his sled, then pitches himself, head foremost, down the declivity, dexterously throwing his body, full length, upon his vehicle, as on a surf board.”

“The sled, keeping its rail or grassway, courses with velocity down the steep, and passes off into the plain, bearing its proud, but prone and headlong rider, who scarcely values his neck more than the prize at stake.” (Bingham)

The Ahole Hōlua consists of a steeply sloping sliding ramp (about 200-feet long) and runway (75-feet long – high on the eastern or top end of the slide.)

An alignment of water-worn stones and a rise in height of approximately 1-foot marks the beginning of the slide itself. Aside from these water-worn stones, the rest of the slide surface and facing is constructed with aa stones of varying size.

The height of the slide varies to make a smooth steep slope. The first meter or so from the top is fairly flat; the next 100-feet are steeply sloping, at least 1:3. The next 50-feet form a very steep slope 5′:11′. The last 65-feet are again flat and the surfaces change to ‘ili‘ili and coral with only in small amounts of aa strewn about.

On the aa bluff to the north of the hōlua are large numbers of what appear to be the gallery terraces and platforms, walls, stepping stone trails, shelters and walled enclosures.

These are situated in such a manner as to present a good view of the slide and it is not improbable that these features were used for just that function.

The surface of the entire area between these features is covered with the ‘popcorn and peanuts’ of the day – opihi, cowrie, pipipi and conus together with kukui nut shells, animal bone and coconut fragments. (NPS)

This is one of the best preserved hōlua on Hawai‘i Island, arid within the entire state. Interesting and significant here is the presence of a number of platforms constructed of stone that are located alongside the hōlua. These were undoubtedly for the spectators who watched the sport.

A hōlua of this magnitude and elegance indicates the complexity of ancient Hawaiian culture wherein large labor forces could be marshalled to produce a luxury structure dedicated to a recreational use by the higher ranking Hawaiians.

The creation of a proper slide, with its required slope (much like that of a western ski jump), flatness of top, and proper length to ensure both sled speed and a deacceleration area, are indicative of the highly developed skills of the ancient Hawaiians in stonework engineering. (NPS)

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September 26, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Water Rights

The Hawaiian word for ʻlaw’ or ʻrule’ is kānāwai – it is interesting to note that the literal translation of kānāwai is ʻrelating to water.’ Traditional Hawaiian law initially developed around the management and use of water. (Sproat)

Emma Metcalf Beckley Nakuina, Commissioner of Private Ways and Water Rights, wrote an article “Ancient Hawaiian Water Rights and Some Customs Pertaining to Them” published in 1893 in Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual. The following are portions of that article.

Water rights were primarily for lo‘i (pondfields,) that is, for kalo (taro) culture; potato patches, bananas or sugar cane had no recognized claim on a water right in the rotation.

The cultivation of these, regarded as dry land crops, were invariably during the rainy season except in the Ko‘olau or wet districts. Sugar cane and bananas were almost always planted on lo‘i banks (kuauna) so as to ensure a sufficiency of moisture from the seepage or ooze between them.

Each ‘auwai (water courses) had a proper name and was generally called after either the land, or chief of the land that had furnished the most men, or had mainly been instrumental in the inception, planning and carrying out the work.

All ‘auwai tapping the main stream were done under the authority of the Konohiki of an ahupua‘a, ‘ili or ku. In some instances, the Konohiki of two or three independent lands united in the work of ‘auwai making.

‘Auwai were generally dug from makai (seaward or below) upwards. The different ahupua‘a, ‘ili or ku taking part in the work furnished men according to the number of cultivators on each land.

The dams were always a low loose wall of stones with a few clods here and there, high enough to raise water sufficiently to flow into the ‘auwai. No ‘auwai was permitted to take more water than continued to flow in the stream below the dam.

The general distribution of the quantity of water each independent land was entitled to was in proportion to the quota of hands furnished by each land, but subject to regulations as to distance from source of supply. (There was no limit to the number of laborers any land might furnish.)

The konohiki of the land controlling the most water rights in a given ‘auwai was invariably its luna. He controlled and gave the proportion of water to each mo‘o‘āina (kuleana) or single holding of the common people cultivating on that land.

In ancient times the holders of a water right were required whenever it became their turn in the water rotation or division to go up with the luna wai (superintendent) to the water head or dam to see that it was in proper condition …

… follow down the ‘auwai from there, removing all obstructions which may have fallen in or had been carried down by the water during the night from the kahawai or mountain stream …

… shut off all branch ‘auwai or runlets from the main ‘auwai, except those conducting water to lo‘i entitled to water at the same time, the luna wai – who should be with him during all this time – making the necessary division by means of a clod, stone or both; the water holder continuing to follow the water until it entered his lo‘i and the koele in his charge.

Bordering on the upper portions of most ‘auwai were small lo‘i limited in size and number, generally on a hillside, or on the borders of a gulch.

These lo‘i were generally awarded kulu or drops; that is, they were entitled to continual driblets of water, and no one having a water share may turn the water entirely away from them unless, in times of scarcity, it should be seen that these lo‘i were full to overflowing.

It was a strictly enforced custom, that should any water right holder neglect to go, or furnish a substitute at the periodical ‘auwai cleanings, repairs of dam, etc., water would be withheld from the land of the absentee until such time as he should see fit to resume work for the benefit of what might be termed the shareholders of that ‘auwai .

It sometimes occurred that a land originally entitled only to a small portion of water, but afterwards held or presided over by an industrious, energetic man; whose popularity attracted many to live under him, would be accorded an increased supply in consequence of his promptly furnishing as many or more hands than some land entitled to more water than his.

After this had continued some time, the water-luna would recognized the justice of an increased supply for his land, and would either take a portion of water from any land failing in its due quota of hands, or as was more frequently done, simply adding a day, night, or both to the rotation; letting his land have the added time.

Anyone in the olden times caught breaking a dam built in accordance with the Hawaiian’s idea of justice and equity, would be slain by the share holders of that dam, and his body put in the breach he had made, as a temporary stopgap, thus serving as a warning to others who might be inclined to act similarly.

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