Hawaiian Antiquities
David Malo
HONOLULU HAWAIIAN GAZETTE CO.,
Ltd. 1903
https://hawaiian-grammar.org/resources/Malo-Hawaiian-Antiquities.pdf
CHAPTER XLTV.
pgs. 288-289
Kii: Dietrich Varez
1. Foot-racing, kukini, was a very popular amusement. It was associated with betting and was conducted in the following manner:
2. The knkini, or swift runners, were a class of men who were trained^ with great severity and made tO' practice running very frequently, until they had attained great speed. When the people wished to indulge in betting a number of the fastest of this class were selected and two of this number were chosen to run a race.
3. Those who thought one man was the faster runner of the two bet their property on him, and those who thought the other was the faster, bet their property on him.
4. When people had made their bets, the experts came to judge by physical examination which of the two runners was likely to win, after which they made their bets. One man, after staking all his property, pledged his wife and his own body {pill hihia), another man bet property he had borrowed from another (piii kana). When all the pledges had been deposited (kieke, literally bagged) the betting was at an end.
5. The runners (kukini) then took their station at the starting point and a pole with a flag was planted at the goal. The race might be over a long course or a short one; that was as the runners agreed.
6. It was a rule of the game that if both runners reached the goal at the same instant, neither party won (aole no eo) , it was a dead heat {pai wale). It was when one reached the goal ahead of the other that he was declared victor. In that case the winners made great exultation over their victory.
7. Sometimes a runner would sell out- the race to liis opponent and let a third person stake his property on the other runner. This was the practice in kukini.
NOTES TO CHAPTER XLIV.
(i) Sect. 2. Koi, ko'h-cc. According to other authorities if should be ka'i, ka'h-ce, to practice, train, exercise. The runner was first exercised in walking on his toes, without touching the heel of the foot io 289 the ground. Then he was set to running, at first for a short distance and at a moderate pace. Finally he was made to run at full speed for great distances. While in training they were denied poi and all soggy, heavy food, but were fed on rare-done flesh of the fowl, and roasted vegetables, taro, sweet-potato, bread-fruit, etc.
Kaohcle, son of Kumukoa, a king of Molokai who was contemporary with Alapai-nui of Hawaii, was a celebrated kukini. It is related of him that he could run from Kaluaaha as far as to Halawa and return before a fish put on the fire at the time of his starting had time to be roasted. "E kui ka mania' i loaa Kaohelc." You must double (literally piece out) your speed to catch Kaohele.
Uluanui of Oahu, a rival and friend of Kaohele, was a celebrated foot- runner. It was said of him that he could carry a fish from the Kaelepulu pond in Kailua. round by way of Waialua and bring it in to Waikiki while it was still alive and wriggling. Makoko was a celebrated runner of Kamehameha I on Hawaii. It was said of him that he could carry a fish from the pond at Waiakea, in Hilo, and reach Kailua before it was dead. The distance is a little over a hundred miles, making it, of course, an impossible story. But it would be unkind to take such statements with utter literalness. (2) Sect. 7. The Hawaiian text reads. "O kekahi poe, nolunolu na hai ke eo, a na hai e lipi ka lakou waiwai, pehea ka hana ana ma ke kukini." Only by removing the comma after poe and rearranging the letters in the word lipi, which should evidently be pili, is it possible to make sense out of this passage. It is curious to note the same corrupt practice, of selling out a race, in ancient Hawaii, as prevails in the civilized world to-day.
Hawaiian Mythology by Martha Beckwith (pgs 337-339) writes that Kalanimenehune, younger son of Lua-nuʻu, had two sons, the older of whom, called Aholoholo (Runner), is said to have been “renowned for his swiftness.” Legends tell of famous runners (kukini) employed by chiefs to act as messengers and especially to bring fresh fish from distant fishponds. Trained thieves too were employed to steal from an enemy, and for them swiftness of foot was an essential qualification.
Chiefs looked doubtfully upon the first horses introduced upon the islands; their runners were swift of foot and could easily run down goats on the mountain. There is a well-attested incident told of a native Hawaiian in early days who staked his own speed on the race course against the competing horse and won the race. The names of famous runners and their deeds have passed into legend and sometimes into myth.
Ulua-nui, a famous runner of Oahu, could carry a fish from Kaele-pulu pond in Kailua around by way of Waialua and bring it in at Waikiki alive and wriggling.1 Makoa (or Makoko), the swift runner of Kau, when Kamehameha had his awa preparing (at Kailua), was sent to Hilo to fetch mullet from the pond of Waiakea adjoining Puna, a journey which today would take a man four days, and returned with the fish still quivering. A similar story is told of Kane-a-ka-ehu in the same period, who used to run back and forth between Kailua and Hilo by a steep and precipitous trail, starting when the preparations began for the feast and returning by the time the meal was cooked and ready. Other famous runners mentioned in the stories are Ka-leo-nui, sent by Ka-kuihewa to intercept Lono-i-ka-makahiki’s kahuna on his way from Hawaii to help his master, who circled the island twice without finding the kahuna; Ka-ehu-iki-a-wakea, the best runner of Aikanaka on Kauai;4 Kalamea, the swift runner of Maui in Lono-a-piʻi’s service who could go around Maui in a day; Pakui, special attendant of Haumea at Kai-lua, who could circle Oahu six times in a day (see Pupuhu-luana); Ku-hele-moana and Keakea-lani, the swift runners of Kakuhihewa, who could compass Oahu twelve times in a day Kama (or Kane)-a-ka-mikioi and Kama (or Kane)-a-ka-ulu-ohia, sons of Halulu of Niʻihau, so fleet of foot that they could make ten circuits of Kauai in a day, and run on land or ocean, from earth to sky.
Dwarfs (kupa-liʻi) are mentioned in traditions of early migrations as “noted for their swiftness as runners.” It was said of the Menehune, to indicate their stature, that they were “below the knees of Naipualehu,” a Kauai dwarf about three feet in height. Kamakau says of the forefathers that “they often speak of the land of the dwarfs (ka aina o ke ku-paliʻi), a land of people so small that it would take ten of them to equal one ordinary man.” One of these little men was brought to Punaluʻu in Kau district on Hawaii and lived above Kopu and Moaula and was called an ili (which is the name given to a small “parcel” of land) and a pilikua (back-clinger), and Wahanui brought some to Kauai.
LEGENDS OF FAMOUS RUNNERS
Keliʻi-malolo is born at Hana and noted as the fastest runner of Maui in the time of Kahekili. He joins a canoe trip to Kapa-kai in Kohala, Hawaii, and after a little run of about ninety miles to Kaawaloa and back finds the canoes not yet covered or the baggage removed. His friends challenge the truth of his story, contending that it would take two days to go and return from such a distance. His account of the places along the way however tallies with the facts, and at the end of the run he has been careful to leave two joints of sugar cane set up as proof of his story.
Kao-hele, noted runner of Molokai, is pursued in vain by Kahekili’s men when they come to make war on Molokai. They station relays, but he outdistances them all, hence the saying, “Combine the speed to catch Kaohele” (E kuʻi ka mama i loaa o Kaohele). At one time chiefs and people are crowded at a famous cliff for the sport of leaping into the bathing pool below, and Kaohele, finding himself headed for this cliff and closely pursued, leaps across to the opposite bank, a distance of thirty-six feet. Kao-hele is runner and protector for four chiefs who live at the heiau of Kahokukano on Molokai and have a fishpond mountain ward. He is killed by a sling stone in a battle with men from Hawaii but his chiefs escape.
Manini-holo-kuaua (named by Rice as head fisherman of the Menehune at Haena on Kauai) is known as a noted thief of Molokai, so strong he can carry away a whole canoe on his back and so swift he can escape all pursuit. His moʻo grandmother, Kalama-ula, lives in a cave in the uplands which opens and shuts at command, and it is his custom to run with his booty to this cave and hide it away there. When Ke-lii-malolo, the fleet runner of Oahu, comes to Molokai on a visit and in contempt of warnings leaves his canoe unguarded while he goes in for a bath, Manini lays claim to it and carries it away with all it contains to his cave in the uplands, into which he disappears before its owner can overtake him. Ke-liʻi-malolo engages the help of the two supernatural sons of Halulu, Kama-aka-mikioi and Kama-aka-ulu-ohia, and sails with them to Molokai. Manini, in contempt of his grandmother’s warning, seizes their canoe also, but is overtaken by one of the men, who overhears his command and orders the cave to shut just as he is entering so that he is caught and crushed within its jaws. Within the cave are found innumerable possessions.
Comentarios