Unwritten Literature of Hawaii | Page 6

come down to
us from the remotest antiquity are generally inspired with a purer
sentiment and a loftier purpose than the modern; 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 naiveté of a child
thinking no evil.
On the principle of "the terminal conversion of opposites," which the
author once heard an old philosopher expound, the most advanced
modern is better able to hark back to the sweetness and light and music
of the primeval world than the veriest wigwam-dweller that ever
chipped an arrowhead. It is not so much what the primitive man can
give us as what we can find in him that is worth our while. The light
that a Goethe, a Thoreau, or a Kipling can project into Arcadia is

mirrored in his own nature.
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, [Page 13] 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.
[Page 14]
II.--THE HALAU; THE KUAHU--THEIR
DECORATION
AND CONSECRATION

THE HALAU

In building a halau, or hall, in which to perform the hula a Hawaiian of
the old, old time was making a temple for his god. In later and
degenerate ages almost any structure would serve the purpose; it might
be a flimsy shed or an extemporaneous _lanai_ such as is used to
shelter that _al fresco_ entertainment, the _luau_. But in the old times
of strict tabu and rigorous etiquette, when the chief had but to lift his
hand and the entire population of a district ransacked plain, valley,