Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/234

 cuun] HAWAIIAN GAMES 203

THE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL

The Ma-ka-hi-ki, or New Year festival, in the latter part of the month of We-le-hu> 1 was devoted to sports and general gambling. On the 23d day of the moon of We-U-hu, the image of Lo-no ma- ku-a,* the Ma-ka-hi-ki god, was decorated. This idol, according to Alexander, 1 was like a round pole, 12 feet long, and 3 or 4 inches in diameter, with a head carved at one end. A cross-stick, about 6 feet long, was fastened to its neck, at right angles to the pole, to which were attached feather wreaths, and an imitation of a sea-bird, the ka-u-pu* was perched upon it. A long white kapa> like a sail, was fastened at the top to the cross-piece, and left loose at the bottom. There was also made a short idol, called A-ku-a pa-a-ni (god of sport) and Ma-ka-wa-hi-ne, because it was set up at boxing matches and other games. The next night fires were lighted on the shore, all around the island, and the people went to bathe in the sea, warming themselves at the fires.

Report U. S. Nat. Museum, 1896, figs. 14, 25) ; also the games of pa-hu and mo-a, which are not unlike games played by the Sioux and other plains tribes. The most striking analogy, however, exists between the guessing game of pu-hc-nt-he-ne and cer- tain Indian games in which a stone or other object is hidden in one of four places. The resemblance here extends even to the use of the stick to strike the supposed place of concealment. A systematic comparison of pu-he-ne-Ju-ne with the American games will be given in the writer's paper on Indian Guessing Games now in course of preparation.

1 The ancient Hawaiians divided the year into twelve months of 30 days each. As this gave but 360 days to their year, they added and gave to their god Lono in feasting and festivity the number of days required to complete the sidereal year, which was regulated by the rising of the Pleiades.

Polynesia. Me had a separate order of priests and temples of a lower grade. Tra- ditions connected with the ancient kings Lonokawai and Lono-i-ka-makahiki, seem to have been mixed with those belonging to the primeval god Lo-no. Lono-i-ka-maka- hiki is reputed to have instituted the games which were celebrated during the Ma-ka- hi-ki festival. He is said on some account to have become offended with his wife and murdered her ; but afterward lamented the act so much as to induce a state of men- tal derangement. In this state he traveled through all the islands, boxing and wres- tling with everyone he met. He subsequently set sail, in a singularly shaped canoe, for Tahiti, or a foreign country. After his departure he was deified by his countrymen, and annual contests of boxing and wrestling were instituted in his honor.
 * Lo-no was the fourth of the four great gods that were worshiped throughout


 * Op. cit„ p. 59.

4 A large black bird, the size of a turkey, found mostly in Nihoa and Kaula.

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