| home | catalogue | history | references | appendix |
 |
surfresearch.com.au
culin : hawaiian games,
1899
|
Internet Archive
http://archive.org/details/aja1741.0001.001.umich.edu
INTRODUCTION
The new
materials
of this paper were collected from four Hawaiian sailors,
from Honolulu,
named Aka (Kamehameha), Daviese Kahimoku, Welakahao, and
Hale Paka (Harry
Park), and verified by means of Andrews' Hawaiian
Dictionary. (1)
These have
been
supplemented by information from other sources (2) and by a
few notes on
similar games in other islands, (3) the object ...
[Footnotes]
1. Honolulu,
1865.
2. Peter
Corney,
Voyages
in the Northern Pacific (1813-1818), Honolulu, 1896.
William
Ellis,
Polynesian
Researches, London, 1853.
Charles
Wilkes,
U. S. N., Narrative of the U. S. Exploring Expedition
during the Years
1833-1842, Philadelphia, 1845.
H.
Carrington
Bolton, Some Hawaiian Pastimes (Journal of
Amerlcan Folk-lore,vol,
IV, No. 21).
W. D,
Alexander,
A Brief History of the Hawaiian People, N. Y., 187I.
Wm. T.
Brigham,
Preliminary
Catalogue of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum,
Honolulu, I892.
3. Rev,
John B.
Stair, Old Samoa, or Floatsam and Jetsam from the
Pacific Ocean,
London, 1897.
Thomas
Williams
and James Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, N.Y., 1859.
R. Taylor, Te
ika
a maui, or New Zea/and and its Inhabitants, London,
1855.
Ernest
Dieffenbach,
Travels
in New Zealand, London, 1843.
R. H.
Codrington,
The
Melanesians, Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore,
Oxford, 1891.
In addition the writer desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to that most suggestive paper by Dr E. B. Tylor: "Remarks on the Geographical Distribution of Games," in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute; vol. IX, 1879, and to the chapters on "Toys and Games" in Prof. A. C. Haddon's valuable work, The Study of Man, 1898.
Page 212
...
23. Hei-hei-na-lu:
"SURF-RACING."
- The
surf-board,
pa-pa-hee-na-lu,
is made from the wood of the wi-li-wi-li (Erythrina
corallodendrum)
or bread-fruit tree.
Ellis (3)
describes
it as generally five or six feet long, and rather more than
a foot wide,
sometimes flat, but more frequently slightly convex on both
sides.
It is
usually
made of the wood of the Erythrina, stained quite
black and preserved
with great care.
After using,
it is placed in the sun until perfectly dry, when it is
rubbed over with
cocoanut oil, frequently wrapped in cloth, and suspended in
some part of
the dwelling.
Dr Bolton
(4)
describes the play as follows:
"Plunging
through
the nearer surf, the natives reached the outer line of
breakers, and watching
their opportunity they lay flat upon the board (the more
expert kneeled),
and just as a high billow was about to break over them,
pushed landward
in front of the combers.
The waves
rushing
in were apparently always on the point of submerging the
rider, but, unless
some mishap occurred, they drove him forward with rapidity
on to the beach
or into shallow water."
[Footnotes]
3. 8 Vol.
IV,
P.3!"J9.
4. Journal
of
American Folk-lore, vol. IV, p. 21.
Page 213
Racing in
the
surf is called hei-hei-na-lu, from hei-hei,
"to race," and
na-Iu,
"surf."
Two
champions
will swim out to sea on boards and the one first arriving on
shore wins.
Playing in
the
surf is hee-na-lu, from hee, "to glide."
Andrews
gives
the names o-lo and o-wi-li for "a very thick
surf-board made
of wi-li-wi-li," and o-ni-ni as "a kind of
surf-board"; also
pa-ha as "a name for surf-board," and ki-o-e,
the "name of a
small surf-board."
FIG.
4-Surf-board
of hard, blackened wood; length 71 inches. British Museum.
(From Ethnographic
Album
of the Pacific Islands, II, 33 No. 1.) -
Adjusted position.
According
to Brigham
(1) -
"Surf-boards
were
usually made of koa, flat with slightly convex
surface, rounded
at one end, slightly narrowing towards the stern, where it
was cut square.
Sometimes
the
pa-pa
were made of very light wi-li-wi-li and then were
narrow, o-lo.
In size they
varied from 3 to 18 feet in length and from 8 to 10 inches
in breadth,
but some of the ancient boards are said to have been 4
fathoms long.
The largest
in
this museum are so heavy that they require two men to move
them.
The surf
riders
swam out to sea to the ku-la-na or place where the
high rollers
follow each other in quick succession, and there mounted a
high wave and
rode on it until near the beach where the water was
smoother; the first
one arriving at the hu-a won the race.
The riders
sometimes
raced also to the ku-la-na or starting place.
Standing on
the
boards as they shot in was by no means uncommon.
Men and
women
both took part in this delightful pastime which is now
almost a lost art."
Wilkes (2)
says:
"The Kingsmill islanders use a small board in swimming in
the surf like
that used by the Sandwich islanders."
According to
Codrington (3), "in the Banks' islands and Torres islands,
and no doubt
in other groups, they use the surf board, tapa."
[Footnotes]
1. Preliminary
Catalogue,
part II, p. 55.
2. Op. cit.,
vol V, p. 100.
3. Op. cit.,
p 34.
Internet Archive
http://archive.org/details/aja1741.0001.001.umich.edu
| home | catalogue | history | references | appendix |
H. Carrington Bolton, Some Hawaiian Pastimes (Journal of American Folk-lore,vol, IV, No. 21).