Chapter 37

[Footnote 8: The _iako_ of a canoe are the two arched sticks which hold the outrigger. The _kua iako_ are the points at which they are bound to the canoe, or rest upon it, aft and abaft of the canoe.]

[Footnote 9: The verb _hookuiia_ means literally "cause to be pierced" as with a needle or other sharp instrument. _Kui_ describes the act of piercing, _hoo_ is the causative prefix, _ia_ the passive particle, which was, in old Hawaiian, commonly attached to the verb as a suffix. The Hawaiian speech expresses much more exactly than our own the delicate distinction between the subject in its active and passive relation to an action, hence the passive is vastly more common. Mr. J.S. Emerson points out to me a classic example of the passive used as an imperative--an old form unknown to-day--in the story of the rock, Lekia, the "pohaku o Lekia" which overlooks the famous Green Lake at Kapoho, Puna. Lekia, the demigod, was attacked by the magician, Kaleikini, and when almost overcome, was encouraged by her mother, who called out, "_Pohaku o Lekia, onia a paa_"--"be planted firm." This the demigod effected so successfully as never again to be shaken from her position.]

[Footnote 10: Hawaiian challenge stories bring out a strongly felt distinction in the Polynesian mind between these two provinces, _maloko a mawaho_, "inside and outside" of a house. When the boy Kalapana comes to challenge his oppressor he is told to stay outside; inside is for the chief. "Very well," answers the hero, "I choose the outside; anyone who comes out does so at his peril." So he proves that he has the better of the exclusive company.]

[Footnote 11: In his invocation the man recognizes the two classes of Hawaiian society, chiefs and common people, and names certain distinctive ranks. The commoners are the farming class, _hu, makaainu, lopakuakea, lopahoopiliwale_ referring to different grades of tenant farmers. Priests and soothsayers are ranked with chiefs, whose households, _aialo_, are made up of hangers-on of lower rank--courtiers as distinguished from the low-ranking countrymen--_makaaina_--who remain on the land. Chiefs of the highest rank, _niaupio_, claim descent within the single family of a high chief. All high-class chiefs must claim parentage at least of a mother of the highest rank; the low chiefs, _kaukaualii_, rise to rank through marriage (Malo, p. 82). The _ohi_ are perhaps the _wohi_, high chiefs who are of the highest rank on the father's side and but a step lower on the mother's.]

[Footnote 12: With this judgment of beauty should be compared Fornander's story of _Kepakailiula_, where "mother's brothers" search for a woman beautiful enough to wed their protegé, but find a flaw in each candidate; and the episode of the match of beauty in the tale of _Kalanimanuia_.]