Chapter 46

[Footnote 47: A strict taboo between man and woman forbade eating together on ordinary occasions. Such were the taboo restrictions that a well-regulated, household must set up at least six separate houses: a temple for the household gods, _heiau_; an eating house for the men, _hale mua_, which was taboo to the women; and four houses especially for the women--the living house, _hale noa_, which the husband might enter; the eating house, _hale aina_; the house of retirement at certain periods, which was taboo for the husband, _hale pea_; and the _kua_, where she beat out tapa. The food also must be cooked in two separate ovens and prepared separately in different food vessels.]

[Footnote 48: The place of surf riding in Hawaiian song and story reflects its popularity as a sport. It inspires chants to charm the sea into good surfing--an end also attained by lashing the water with the convolvulus vine of the sea beach; forms the background for many an amorous or competitive adventure; and leaves a number of words in the language descriptive of the surfing technique or of the surf itself at particular localities famous for the sport, as, for example, the "Makaiwa crest" in Moikeha's chant, or the "Huia" of this story. Three kinds of surfing are indulged in--riding the crest in a canoe, called _pa ka waa_; standing or lying flat upon a board, which is cut long, rounded at the front end and square at the back, with slightly convex surfaces, and highly polished; and, most difficult feat of all, riding the wave without support, body submerged and head and shoulders erect. The sport begins out where the high waves form. The foundation of the wave, _honua_, the crest side, _muku_, and the rear, _lala_, are all distinguished. The art of the surfer lies in catching the crest by active paddling and then allowing it to bear him in swift as a race horse to the _hua_, where the wave breaks near the beach. All swimmers know that three or four high waves follow in succession. As the first of these, called the _kulana_, is generally "a high crest which rolls in from end to end of the beach and falls over bodily," the surfer seldom takes it, but waits for the _ohu_ or _opuu_, which is "low, smooth and strong." For other details, see the article by a Hawaiian from Kona, published in the _Hawaiian Annual_, 1896, page 106.]