Hula

December 19, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Amusements

The following is a portion of a letter from William Richards to Charles Wilkes, commander of the United States Exploring Expedition, dated March 15, 1841 in Lahaina. The letter responds to questions raised by Wilkes. It comes from editors Marshall Sahlins and Dorothy Barrere.

Richards arrived in Honolulu in April 1823 in the second company of American missionaries and was stationed soon thereafter in Lahaina, home of many of the chiefs. He remained in Lahaina throughout most of his missionary career.

His knowledge of Hawaiian is known to have been excellent—he is responsible for many translations of biblical and other works into Hawaiian—and as the letter to Wilkes documents, he was friend to the famous Hoapili and other chiefs.

In 1838, Richards left the mission to become political counselor to the Monarchy. In 1842 with T. Ha‘alilio he undertook a mission to America and Europe to negotiate recognition of Hawaii’s independence. Richards was commissioned Minister of Public Instruction in 1846. He died in Honolulu in November 1847. All of the following is from that letter:

Their amusements were pretty numerous, and many of them of an athletic kind, though not requiring the severest trials of strength.

A favorite amusement of the chiefs was sliding down hill on a long narrow slead, upon which they prostratrated themselves, and then having the slead ballanced on the edge of a very steep hill they started it with the foot and were precipitated down the hill with immense velocity often to a distance of half or even a whole mile.

Thus they went from the top of Diamond Hill far out upon the plane of Honolulu, and at other places to a much greater distance.

Rolling a smooth round stone was another favorite amusement and one which tended to strengthen the arms more than any other with which I have been acquainted.

On ground where the descent was scarcely perceptable I have seen the stone rolled a hundred and thirty rods.

Throwing the spear and various other exercises with it was also an amusement as well as a military exercise. With this weapon they were very expert.

Playing on the surf board has always been and continues to be a very favorite amusement. As you have doubtless seen this, I need not describe the process.

The dance was an amusement which was practiced perhaps to a greater extent than any other. There was a great variety of dances. Some of them consisted mainly in the recital of songs accompanied with much action as was calculated to give them force. Other seemed to consist mainly in action.

Sometimes a single girl was the actress, again, a large number united. Their motions were anything but graceful. Their motions were regulated by music, which consisted of a kind of drumming on various hollow vessels, as calabashes, tubs, and a kind of drum made by drawing a piece of shark skin over a short piece of a hollow log. . . .

Every variety of song was rehearsed and acted on these occasions, from the most sentimental to the most lascivious, and the action always echoed to the sense.

Sometimes a single voice rehearsed the song—sometimes a number chanted in unison.

The first summer I spent in Lahaina scarcely a night passed in which I did not hear the noise of these assemblies, and they were uniformly scenes of lewdness and vice.

But the most numerous class of all their amusements was their games of chance.

Of these they were specially fond. These games were peculiar to themselves. The one most practiced by the chiefs was that of placing several bunches of kapas in a row, and then one man took a stone and hid it under one of the tapas. His antagonist guessed the place of the stone, and the one who was oftenest right won the game.

They never played at games of chance without a wager, nor indeed at any game of skill. The wager seemed to constitute the charm of most of their amusements. It was an accompanyment of their down hill slides – their play in the surf – their plays with the spear their rolling the stone – their flying the kite &c. . . .

They gambled away their property of every kind – their clothes – their food – the crops upon their land – the lands themselves – their wives – their husbands – their daughters, and even the very bones of their arms and legs.

At present cards is a common amusement and it is accompanied with its usual evils.

September 16, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Hula is not just a dance, but a way of life, an ancient art that tells of Hawaiʻi’s rich history and spirituality.” (this is attributed to many)

Hula combines dance and chant or song to tell stories, recount past events and provide entertainment for its audience. With a clear link between dancer’s actions and the chant or song, the dancer uses rhythmic lower body movements, mimetic or depictive hand gestures and facial expression, as part of this performance. (ksbe-edu)

As hula is the dance that accompanies Hawaiian mele, the function of hula is therefore an extension of the function of mele in Hawaiian society. While it was the mele that was the essential part of the story, hula served to animate the words, giving physical life to the moʻolelo (stories.) (Bishop Museum)

Today, we typically divide hula into two different forms, the hula kahiko (ancient dance) and the hula ʻauana, (also spelled ʻauwana – modern dance.)

Although the terms hula kahiko (ancient) and hula ʻauana (modern) are used to divide styles of traditional dance, these terms are a relatively recent classification of a practice with a very long history. The dance has also undergone evolutions throughout its history, often being influenced by the political leaders and situations of the time. (Bishop Museum)

“In the hula, the dancers are often fantastically decorated with figured or colored kapa, green leaves, fresh flowers, braided hair, and sometimes with a gaiter on the ancle, set with hundreds of dog’s teeth, so as to be considerably heavy, and to rattle against each other in the motion of the feet.” (Hiram Bingham)

“They had been interwoven too with their superstitions, and made subservient to the honor of their gods, and their rulers, either living or departed and deified.” (Hiram Bingham)

A common misrepresentation of history suggests that the American missionaries banned hula – they could not have, they did not have the authority.

However, it is true that they openly disapproved of hula (as well as other forms of dance and activities) as immoral and idle pastime.

As Bingham notes, they “were wasting their time in learning, practising, or witnessing the hula, or heathen song and dance.”

“Missionary influence, while strong, never wiped out the hula as a functional part of the Hawaiian society. Faced with this undeniable fact, the authorities sought to curb performances by regulation.” (Barrere, Pukui & Kelly)

Despite efforts to eliminate hula, many of the ancient chants and dances were kept alive within families and passed to descendants. (Bishop Museum)

In 1830, Kaʻahumanu issued an oral proclamation in which she instructed the people, in part: “The hula is forbidden, the chant (olioli), the song of pleasure (mele), foul speech, and bathing by women in public places.” (Kamakau)

Although it was apparently never formally rescinded, the law was so widely ignored, especially after Kaʻahumanu died in 1832, that it virtually ceased to exist.

In 1836, it is reported the French consul for Manila visited Honolulu, and attended a state banquet hosted by the King. Part of the festivities was a formal hula performance.

In 1850, the Penal Code required a license for “any theater, circus, Hawaiian hula, public show or other exhibition, not of an immoral character” for which admission was charged.

“No license for a Hawaiian hula shall be granted for any other place than Honolulu.” (The law did not regulate hula in private, so the dance continued to be practiced and enjoyed throughout the islands.)

King David Kalākaua’s 1883 coronation included three days of hula performances and his 1886 jubilee celebrations had performances of ancient and newly created dances.

Reviewing older drawings of hula, it is clear that the attire of the dancers is different than what we generally associate with hula attire today (and throughout the last century.)

Men and women were topless in the original hula attire. Women wore a pāʻū, which is a wrap made of tapa cloth. Men wore malos, or loincloths, and other kapa wraps.

Hula attire was expanded with lei and decorations for dancers’ wrists and ankles. Originally, some of these decorations were made of whale bone or dogs’ teeth.

So, when and where did the grassy/leafy skirt that we know today come from?

Reportedly, the grass skirt was introduced to Hawaiʻi by immigrants from the Gilbert Islands (small atolls that are today part of the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati) in the 1870s and 1880s.

“Hawaiian hula during and after that period (Kalākaua era) influenced and was influenced by the dance styles of other Islanders, such as the incorporation of Kiribati-style grass skirts.” (Kealani Cook, PhD dissertation)

By the early 1900s, hula performers in Hawaiʻi and the US continent wore grass skirts. Some hula performers still wear grass skirts today.

Today, grass skirts function as the international symbol for hula dancing. The grass skirts sway with the dancers as they move their hips, creating a fluid movement. Dancers also wear a variety of other apparel.

April 17, 2022 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

ʻIliʻili Hānau o Kōloa

Ka ʻiliʻili hānau o Kōloa; ka nalu haʻi o Kāwā.
The reproducing pebbles of Kōloa; the breaking surf of Kāwā.

ʻIliʻili hānau o Kōloa (Birth Pebble of Kōloa) is the mother of rocks for Kaʻū district, referring to the porous pebbles found especially at the beach of Kōloa, Kaʻū district, on Hawaiʻi Island.

Such stones were supposed to grow from a tiny pebble to a good-sized rock and to reproduce themselves if watered once a week. Care had to be taken lest they be stepped upon or otherwise treated with disrespect.

Hence they were carefully wrapped in tapa and laid away on a high rafter of the house. At a child’s naming day or on other special occasions such as marriages, wars, and fishing expeditions they were taken down and arranged on ti leaves, together with awa root, upon a mat or table and their wisdom and blessing invoked.

Afterwards some member of the family would have a dream favorable or unfavorable to the project in hand and this was regarded as sent from the god. (Beckwith)

These are beach worn pebbles. The interest attaching to them is derived from the belief still held by many natives with whom Emerson conversed with that they are of different sexes and beget off spring which increase in size and in turn beget others of their kind.

The males are of a smooth surface without noticeable indentations or pits. The females have these little pits in which their young are developed and in due time separate from their mothers to begin independent existence.

The ‘male’ stones are gray, basalt beach-worn pebbles having no pits or cavities. Most are flat and about an inch in size. The ‘female’ stones (a little bigger) are of the same material; however, they have small pits or cavities within which are very tiny basalt pebbles.

The “children” that are not in the “female” cavities and a less than an inch long. (Bishop Museum)

William Ellis tells the following account from his brief visit there in 1824:

“We had not traveled far (from Hīlea) before we reached Nīnole, a small village on the sea shore, celebrated on account of a short pebbly beach called Koroa (Kōloa)”.

“(T)he stones of which were reported to possess very singular properties, among others, that of propagating their species.”

“The natives told us it was a wahi pana (place famous) for supplying … the stones for making small adzes and hatchets, before they were acquainted with the use of iron”.

“(B)ut particularly for furnishing the stones of which the gods were made, who presided over most of the games of Hawai‘i.

“Some powers of discrimination, they told us, were necessary to discover the stones which would answer to be deified.”

“When selected they were taken to the Heiau, and there several ceremonies were performed over them. Afterwards, when dressed, and taken to the place where the games were practiced, if the parties to whom they belonged were successful, their fame was established”.

“(B)ut if unsuccessful for several times together, they were either broken to pieces, or thrown contemptuously away.“

“When any were removed for the purpose of being transformed into gods, one of each sex was generally selected; these were always wrapped very carefully together in a piece of native cloth.”

“After a certain time, they said a small stone would be found with them, which, when grown to the size of its parents, was taken to the Heiau, or temple, and afterwards made to preside at the games. We were really surprised at the tenacity with which this last opinion was adhered to”.

“Koroa [Kōloa] was also a place of importance in times of war, as it furnished the best stones for the slingers.”

“The natives told us it was a wahi pana (place famous) for supplying the black and white kōnane stone.”

“We examined some of the stones. The black ones appeared to be pieces of trap, or compact lava. The white ones were branches of white coral common to all the islands of the Pacific.”

“The angles of both were worn away, and a considerable polish given, by the attrition occasioned by the continual rolling of the surf on the beach.” (Ellis)

The ʻiliʻili from Kōloa were considered the best on the island of Hawaiʻi for hula ʻiliʻili.

January 26, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hula … A view by a Missionary’s Son

“The Hawaiians, it is true, were many removes from being primitives; their dreams, however, harked back to a period that was close to the world’s infancy.”

“Their remote ancestry was, perhaps, akin to ours – Aryan, at least Asiatic – but the orbit of their evolution seems to have led them away from the strenuous discipline that has whipped the Anglo-Saxon branch into fighting shape with fortune.”

“If one comes to the study of the hula and its songs in the spirit of a censorious moralist he will find nothing for him; if as a pure ethnologist, he will take pleasure in pointing out the physical resemblances of the Hawaiian dance to the languorous grace of the Nautch girls, of the geisha, and other oriental dancers.”

“But if he comes as a student and lover of human nature, back of the sensuous posturings, in the emotional language of the songs he will find himself entering the playground of the human race.”

“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.”

“Interwoven with these, forming the woof, were threads of a thousand hues and of many fabrics, representing the imaginations of the poet, the speculations of the philosopher, the aspirations of many a thirsty soul, as well as the ravings and flame-colored pictures of the sensualist …”

“… the mutterings and incantations of the kahuna, the mysteries and paraphernalia of Polynesian mythology, the annals of the nation’s history – the material, in fact, which in another nation and under different circumstances would have gone to the making of its poetry, its drama, its opera, its literature.”

“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.”

“They were musical; their drama must needs be cast in forms to suit their ideas of rhythm, of melody, and of poetic harmony.”

“They were; moreover, the children of passion, sensuous, worshipful of whatever lends itself to pleasure. How, then, could the dramatic efforts of this primitive people, still in the bonds of animalism, escape the note of passion?”

“The songs and other poetic pieces which have come down to us from the remotest antiquity are generally inspired with a purer sentiment and a loftier purpose than the modem; and it may be said of them all that when they do step into the mud it is not to tarry and wallow in it; it is rather with the unconscious naivete of a child thinking no evil.”

“If one mistakes not the temper and mind of this generation, we are living in an age that is not content to let perish one seed of thought or one single phase of life that can be rescued from the drift of time.”

“We mourn the extinction of the buffalo of the plains and of the birds of the islands, rightly thinking that life is somewhat less rich and full without them.”

“What of the people of the plains and of the islands of the sea? Is their contribution so nothingless that one can affirm that the orbit of man’s mind is complete without it?”

“Comparison is unavoidable between the place held by the dance in ancient Hawaii and that occupied by the dance in our modern society.”

“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.”

“Like the Shah of Persia, but for very different reasons, Hawaiians of the old time left it to be done for them by a body of trained and paid performers. “

“This was not because the art and practice of the hula were held in disrepute – quite the reverse – but because the hula was an accomplishment requiring special education and arduous training in both song and dance, and more especially because it was a religious matter, to be guarded against profanation by the observance of tabus and the performance of priestly rites.”

“This fact, which we find paralleled in every form of communal amusement, sport, and entertainment in ancient Hawaii, sheds a strong light on the genius of the Hawaiian.”

“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.”

“Exception must be made, of course, of the unorganized sports of childhood. One is almost inclined to generalize and to say that those children of nature, as we are wont to call them, in this regard were less free and spontaneous than the more advanced race to which we are proud to belong.”

“But if the approaches to the temple of Terpsichore with them were more guarded, we may confidently assert that their enjoyment therein was deeper and more abandoned.” (All here is from Nathaniel Bright Emerson.)

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Jean_Augustin_Franquelin_(after_Louis_Choris),_Danse_des_femmes_dans_les_iles_Sandwich_(1822)

Danse_des_femmes_dans_les_iles_Sandwich._Dess._et_lith._par_Choris._Lith._de_Langlume-1816

Danse_des_hommes_dans_les_iles_Sandwich._Lith.e_par_Franquelin_d’apres_Choris._Lith._de_Langlume_i_de_l’Abbaye._Paris,_1822

October 6, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hula in Relation to Planting and Harvest

“Hula dancing was enjoyed everywhere during these festivities commemorating Lono. Some ancient hula chants may be interpreted as rain-making incantations. Here are several verses that refer to Hilo, one of the rainiest inhabited localities on the island of Hawaii: Hi‘u o Lani

“Heaven magic, fetch a Hilo-pour from heaven!
Morn’ cloud-buds, look! They swell in the East.
The rain-cloud parts, Hilo is deluged with rain,
The Hilo of King Hana-kahi.

Surf breaks, stirs the mire of Pi’ilani;
The bones of Hilo are broken
By the blows of the rain.
Ghostly the rain-scud of Hilo in heaven;

The cloud-forms of Pua-lani grow and thicken.
The rain-priest bestirs him now to go forth,
Forth to observe the stab and thrust of the rain,
The rain that clings to the roof of Hilo.”

(”Pua-Iani (Sky-flower) was the god who was seen as the rosy clouds of morning, a sign of rain.”)

“Laka, the goddess of the wildwood who was patron of the hula, was said to have been the wife and sister of Lana. The lines that follow are from the chant that dedicated the altar of the Halau Hula (Hall of Hula) in which the sacred and traditional hula was taught.”

“On the altar Laka was represented by a block of lama (which means light) wood covered by a yellow tapa cloth, and its decorations consisted of wild growth from the uplands …”

“… fragrant maile, orange-red and flamelike blossoms of ‘ie‘ie, deep red flowers of hala-pepe, scarlet blossoms of lehua which are like little pompoms, pinkish red mountain apples (‘ōhi‘a ‘ai) , many varieties of fern, flowers of hibiscus and hau, red-orange ‘ilima flowers, ti plants, bananas, and breadfruits.”

“According to Kawena Pukui there were five of the above which must be used without fail : (1) ‘Ōhi‘a lehua (branch and blooms); (2) hala pepe (branch and blossom); (3) maile (any kind); (4) ‘ie‘ie (branch with blossom); and (5) palapalai fern. Other foliage and flowers were used when available.”

“Possibly the origin of hula dancing, which is fundamentally a treading motion of the feet accompanied by rhythmical swinging of the hips and hand gestures …”

“… which express the words of the chant while the shoulders and head are held in poise, is to be found in the treading (hehi) of the earth in a newly made taro patch, or lo‘i (to make it hard and watertight) as described by Kamakau.”

“The day chosen for the treading was a holiday. Men, women and children attended. The owner of the patch provided beforehand an abundance of vegetables, pork, and fish. On the day of treading the new loti was flooded.”

“No one, not even the chief or chiefess, was too kapu (sacred) to tread the soil in the patch. It was a festive day-every man, woman and child decked himself with leaves and worked with all his might, tramping here and there, stirring the mud with his feet, dancing, rejoicing, shouting, reveling, and indulging in all sorts of sport.”

“This tramping and hardening of the surface was done so that the water would not sink away into the soil, but remain to circulate around the stalks of the taro when planted. The planting was done next day, for by then the mud had settled to the bottom of the lo‘i.”

“Laka is sometimes referred to as male, sometimes as female. Such contradictions are not inconsistent in Hawaiian thinking, for a nature god may be male in one form and female in another.”

“Ku-ka-‘ōhi‘a-laka is male. He is embodied in the ‘ōhi‘a lehua trees in the rain forest, and was worshiped as a rain god. He was also ‘god of the hula dance’, ‘He is the male god worshiped in the hula dance.”

“That is why the altar in the dance hall is not complete without a branch of red lehua blossoms.’ But as we have seen above, Laka on the hula altar, a block of lama wood, was a woman, the sister and wife of Lono.”

“Emerson identifies Lono (the god of rain) with Laka, Laka’s body, it is said, was the fragrant foliage of the mountains, the wild ginger, the fern, the maile, the ilima ti.”

“It is obvious that Laka, Lono’s wife, and hula dancing were intimately associated with the idea of rain and abundance of growing things.”

“Kane, with whom taro planting and the origin of taro were associated, was, along with Ku, Lono, and Laka, identified with rain.”

“In a series of prayers used at the decorating of the hula altar with greenery from the uplands: ‘On the highest pinnacle great Lono-of-Kane (Lono-nui-a -Kane) will hear.’”

“Later the prayer addresses Kane-of-Lono (Kane-o-Lono). Kane is also addressed as Kane-i-ka-pahu‘a, which may be translated “Kane-the-thruster” or “Kane-the-dancer.” Kane-i-ka-pahu-wai is “Kane with-a-calabash-of-water,” which he pours out on the earth below. This of course is “Kane-of-the-water-of-life,” who was invoked in prayers of the harvest festival.”

“Hula dances and recitatives were performed in honor of the high chief or mo‘i, and in honor of his first-born. It was the mo‘i who played the role of Lono in the Makahiki festival, and during the Makahiki the mo‘i was entertained with hula dancing and chanting.”

“We have an interesting description of a hula performed by planters, the Hula pu niu. This is a hula for farmers. It is done thus …”

“… In the evening the men are all told that they are going to farm, then in the early morning the kumu hula begins his dance, at the time of dancing there are some gourd instruments and the puniu (coconut drum) covered with the skin of the kala fish.”

“These are played at the hula and then taken to the field. Sometimes the larger instruments are taken, sometimes only the puniu, covered with the skin of the kala fish.”

“While the men work they are silent, and after they are finished they have another hula. The men go to the mountain for maile, palai ferns, awapuhi, and ‘ie‘ie.”

“When they return home, a banner (pahu hae) is taken ahead and the men walk in single file behind it. Thus they go till they reach the hula house. And because of this it is called a farmer’s hula.” (All from Handy, Handy & Pukui)

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