Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/282

 cuun] HAWAIIAN GAMES 239

small gourd of peculiar shape, which was thrown at a stick set up at a distance.

Andrews gives lo-ha as a kind of sport in former times, the same as ki-lu ; also he-lu-ai as the office of a person engaged in the play of ki-lu, and hau-na as the striking of the hand or other substance in playing the ki-lu.

80. Ki-o-la~o-la-le-na : " RING-CASTING." — A game of casting iron rings over a small stake or pin. The rings are about an inch in interior diameter. Four men play, each with ten rings. The one who puts the most rings on the pin wins the prize. On the birthday of King Kamehameha I, rings made of sections of cocoa- nut shell (/e-na-ni-u), wrapped with kapa to prevent their break- ing, are used in a similar game, in accordance with old custom. My informants state that stone rings also were anciently used.

81. Pu-he-ne-he-ne. — A game in which a stone called a no-a was concealed in one of five places (puu) under a kapa, the object being to guess under which it was hidden.

Ellis ' describes it as one of the most popular games of the Hawaiian islands, the favorite amusement of the king and higher order of chiefs, and frequently occupied them whole days to- gether. Those who play sit cross-legged on mats spread on the ground, each holding in his right hand a small elastic rod, ma-i-le, about three feet long and highly polished (plate xii, //). At the small end of this stick is a narrow slit or hole, through which a piece of dogskin, with a tuft of shaggy hair on it, or a piece of ti leaf, is usually drawn. Five pieces of kapa of different colors, each loosely folded up like a bundle, are then placed between the two parties, which generally consist of five persons each. One person is then selected on each side to hide the stone. He who is first to hide it, takes it in his right hand, lifts up the cloth at one end, puts his arm under as far as his elbow, and passing it along several times underneath the five pieces of cloth, which lie in a line contiguous to each other, he finally leaves it under one

1 Vol. iv, p. 81.

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