"Physician"
Collection of The Four Seasons Resort Hualalai
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Wearing a lei of shredded ti leaves, a kahuna la'au lapa'au prepares an infusion of herbs, some of which will be ground up in the stone mortar near his knee. Many remedies were gathered from the sea to the mountain forests, and some were cultivated. Smoke curls up behind him from a small fire over which noni leaves are being charred for use in a preparation.

He holds a sprig of popolo, perhaps the most important of all medicinal plants. The juice of the leaves and the black, sweet berries was used in teatments for skin disorders, wounds, and digestive problems. In the bowl at lower right are fruit and leaves of noni, perhaps the second most important plant in healing. Leaves of kukui, in the basket at right, were used as a laxative or a purge. A small bowl (lower center) holds red salt (pa'akai 'alaea) evaporated from sea water steeped in red ocherous earth. On the platter, right to left, are yellow-blossomed 'ilima, the seaweed limu kala, and the corns of olena (tumeric). Behind the platter are stalks of ko (Polynesian sugar cane). At lower left is the ginger 'awapuhi.

At left, a broken bone is being set. It is said that specialists in bone setting went through a lengthy apprenticeship form which they graduated only after breaking and successfully setting a bone in a member of their family. At right, a physician manipulates the body of a patient with varying pressures calculated to help him make his diagnosis.

Physicians observed rituals expressing respect toward Lono, patron spirit of healing, and strived to emulate their ancestral 'aumakua, conducting their lives in a manner that would make them worthy of receiving mana.

Page 54, Ancient Hawaii