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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.
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