"Ruling Chiefs"
Collection of The Four Seasons, Hualalai

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A paramount chief, or king* (ali'i nui) wears a feathered helmet (mahiole) and cloak ('ahu'ula). Full length cloaks were worn ceremonially; in battle, shorter capes were worn. The feathered malo worn around the waist and over the left shoulder signifies investiture as a king. Both figures wear carved whalestooth pendants on neckpieces of finely braided hair of ancestors (lei niho palaoa). An abstraction of a tongue, it signifies that the wearer speaks with authority. She wears a voluminous kapa wrap, a feathered head lei, a boar's tusk bracelet, and carries a small feathered kahili, a fly whisk that evolved as a chiefly symbol.

The temple image at left is carved in a style typical of Hawai'i Island. Beneath the image the kahuna nui, high priest of Ku (patron spirit of the chiefs), holds a feathered spirit image wrapped in kapa. Beside the kahuna nui stands the kalaimoku (prime minister and chief diplomat), holding a stalk of ti, a sign of truce or peace. At right stands a servant, a guard bearing a feathered standard (kahili) of a height that warns commoners of the king's approach, and an armed bodyguard. As in Europe, Hawaiian rulers often recruited sons of district chiefs for training in their court, a practice calculated to insure loyalty.

Page 47, Ancient Hawaii

*"King," from the Old English "cyning" when there were many such worthies throughout Britain, was synonymous to "paramount chief" and is used here in that meaning.