“The hula was a religious service, in which poetry, music, pantomime, and the dance lent themselves, under the forms of dramatic art, to the refreshment of men’s minds.”
“Its view of life was idyllic, and it gave itself to the celebration of those mythical times when gods and goddesses moved on the earth as men and women and when men and women were as gods.”
“As to subject-matter, its warp was spun largely from the bowels of the old-time mythology into cords through which the race maintained vital connection with its mysterious past.”
“The people were superstitiously religious; one finds their drama saturated with religious feeling; hedged about with tabu, loaded down with prayer and sacrifice. “
“They were poetical; nature was full of voices for their ears; their thoughts came to them as images; nature was to them an allegory; all this found expression in their dramatic art.”
“The ancient Hawaiians did not personally and informally indulge in the dance for their own amusement, as does pleasure loving society at the present time.”
“We are wont to think of the old-time Hawaiians as light-hearted children of nature, given to spontaneous outbursts of song and dance as the mood seized them …”
“… quite as the rustics of ‘merrie England’ joined hands and tripped ‘the light fantastic toe’ in the joyous month of May or shouted the harvest home at a later season. “
“The genius of the Hawaiian was different.”
“With him the dance was an affair of premeditation, an organized effort, guarded by the traditions of a somber religion. And this characteristic, with qualifications, will be found to belong to popular Hawaiian sport and amusement of every variety.” (Nathaniel Bright Emerson.)
The costume of the hula dancer was much the same for both sexes, its chief article a simple short skirt about the waist, the pa-u. When the time has come for a dance, the halau becomes one common dressing room. At a signal from the kumu the work begins. The putting on of each article of costume is accompanied by a special song.
First come the ku-pe‘e, anklets of whale teeth, bone, shell-work, dog-teeth, fiber-stuffs, and what not. While all stoop in unison they chant the song of the anklet:
Aala kupukupu ka uka o Kane-hoa.
E ho-a!
Hoa na llma o ka makani, he Wai-kaloa
He Wai-kaloa ka makanl anu Lihue.
Alina lehua i kau ka opua
Ku’u pua,
Ku’u pua i‘ini e ku-i a lei.
Ina ia oe ke lei ‘a mai ia.
Fragrant the grasses of high Kane-hoa.
Bind on the anklets, bind!
Bind with finger deft as the wind
That cools the air of this bower.
Lehua bloom pales at my flower,
O sweetheart of mine,
Bud that I’d pluck and wear in my wreath,
If thou wert but a flower!
(Anklet Song, Emerson)
“In times long past anklets made from hundreds of dog teeth which, strung on a foundation of olona netting in much the same manner as feathers were woven into the fabric of a fiber mesh to make the famous feather capes, were worn in the hula to accentuate the rhythms of the feet in dancing. They were called kupee niho ilio, dog tooth bracelets.” (Roberts)
’The canine teeth of dogs (’ilio) with holes drilled through the root and strung on a cord have been regarded as dog-tooth necklaces (lei ’ilio).’
‘They may have been used temporarily as such, but it is more likely that they were so strung until a sufficient number had been collected to make the dog-tooth leg ornament characteristic of Hawaii.’
’Dogtooth leg ornaments (kupe’e niho ’ilio), worn by men dancers, are peculiar to Hawaii.’ (Buck) They could also be considered instruments, as they underlined the sounds of stamping feet.
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