Unwritten Literature of Hawaii | Page 7

and
mountain to collect the poles, beams, thatch, and cordstuff; when the
workers were so numerous that the structure grew and took shape in a
day, we may well believe that ambitious and punctilious patrons of the
hula, such as La'a, Liloa, or Lono-i-ka-makahiki, did not allow the
divine art of Laka to house in a barn.
The choice of a site was a matter of prime importance. A formidable
code enunciated the principles governing the selection. But--a matter of
great solicitude--there were omens to be heeded, snares and pitfalls
devised by the superstitious mind for its own entanglement. The
untimely sneeze, the ophthalmic eye, the hunched back were omens to
be shunned.
Within historic times, since the abrogation of the tabu system and the
loosening of the old polytheistic ideas, there has been in the hula a

lowering of former standards, in some respects a degeneration. The old
gods, however, were not entirely dethroned; the people of the hula still
continued to maintain the form of divine service and still appealed to
them for good luck; but the soul of worship had exhaled; the main
study now was to make of the hula a pecuniary success.
In an important sense the old way was in sympathy with the thought,
"Except God be with the workmen, they labor in vain that build the
house." The means for gaining divine favor and averting the frown of
the gods were those practised by all religionists in the infantile state of
the human mind--the observance of fasts and tabus, the offering of
special prayers and sacrifices. The ceremonial purification of the site,
or of the building if it had been used for profane purposes, was
accomplished by aspersions with sea water mixed with turmeric or red
earth.
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When one considers the tenacious hold which all rites and ceremonies
growing out of what we are accustomed to call superstitions had on the
mind of the primitive Hawaiian, it puzzles one to account for the entire
dropping out from modern memory of the prayers which were recited
during the erection of a hall for the shelter of an institution so festive
and so popular as the hula, while the prayers and gloomy ritual of the
temple service have survived. The explanation may be found, perhaps,
in the fact that the priests of the temple held position by the sovereign's
appointment; they formed a hierarchy by themselves, whereas the
position of the _kumu-hula_, who was also a priest, was open to
anyone who fitted himself for it by training and study and by passing
successfully the _ai-lolo_[2] ordeal. After that he had the right to
approach the altar of the hula god with the prescribed offerings and to
present the prayers and petitions of the company to Laka or Kapo.
[Footnote 2: _Ai-lolo_. See pp. 32, 34, 36.]
In pleasing contrast to the worship of the _heiau_, the service of the
hula was not marred by the presence of groaning victims and bloody
sacrifices. Instead we find the offerings to have been mostly rustic
tokens, things entirely consistent with light-heartedness, joy, and

ecstasy of devotion, as if to celebrate the fact that heaven had come
down to earth and Pan, with all the nymphs, was dancing.
During the time the halau was building the tabus and rules that
regulated conduct were enforced with the utmost strictness. The
members of the company were required to maintain the greatest
propriety of demeanor, to suppress all rudeness of speech and manner,
to abstain from all carnal indulgence, to deny themselves specified
articles of food, and above all to avoid contact with a corpse. If anyone,
even by accident, suffered such defilement, before being received again
into fellowship or permitted to enter the halau and take part in the
exercises he must have ceremonial cleansing (_huikala_). The _kumu_
offered up prayers, sprinkled the offender with salt water and turmeric,
commanded him to bathe in the ocean, and he was clean. If the breach
of discipline was gross and willful, an act of outrageous violence or the
neglect of tabu, the offender could be restored only after penitence and
confession.
THE KUAHU
In every halau stood the _kuahu_, or altar, as the visible temporary
abode of the deity, whose presence was at once the inspiration of the
performance and the luck-bringer of the enterprise--a rustic frame
embowered in greenery. The gathering of the green leaves and other
sweet finery of [Page 16] nature for its construction and decoration was
a matter of so
great importance that it could not be intrusted to any chance
assemblage of wild youth, who might see fit to take the work in hand.
There were formalities that must be observed, songs to be chanted,
prayers to be recited. It was necessary to bear in mind that when