[Footnote 32:  The Polynesians, like the ancient Hebrews, practiced circumcision with strict ceremonial observances.]

[Footnote 33:  The gods invoked by Aiwohikupua are not translated with certainty, but they evidently represent such forces of the elements as we see later belong among the family deities of the Aiwohikupua household.  Prayer as an invocation to the gods who are called upon for help is one of the most characteristic features of native ritual, and the termination amama, generally accompanied by the finishing phrases ua noa, “it is finished,” and lele wale aku la, “flown away,” is genuine Polynesian.  Literally mama means “to chew,” but not for the purpose of swallowing like food, but to spit out of the mouth, as in the preparation of awa.  The term may therefore, authorities say, be connected with the ceremonial chewing of awa in the ritualistic invocations to the gods.  A similar prayer quoted by Gill (Myths and Songs, 120) he ascribes to the antiquity of the story.]

[Footnote 34:  The laau palau, literally “wood-that-cuts,” which Wise translates “war club,” has not been identified on Hawaii in the Bishop Museum, but is described from other groups.  Gill, from the Hervey Islands, calls it a sharpened digging stick, used also as a weapon.  The gigantic dimensions of these sticks and their appellations are emphasized in the hero tales.]

[Footnote 35:  The Hawaiian cloak or kihei is a large square, 2 yards in size, made of bark cloth worn over the shoulders and joined by two corners on one side in a knot.]

[Footnote 36:  The meaning of the idiomatic boast he lala kamahele no ka laau ku i ka pali is uncertain.  I take it to be a punning reference to the Pali family from whom the chief sprang, but it may simply be a way of saying “I am a very high chief.”  Kamahele is a term applied to a favorite and petted child, as, in later religious apostrophe, to Christ himself.]

CHAPTER VI

[Footnote 37:  The puloulou is said to have been introduced by Paao some five hundred years ago, together with the ceremonial taboo of which it is the symbol.  Since for a person of low rank to approach a sacred place or person was death to the intruder, it was necessary to guard against accidental offences by the use of a sign.  The puloulou consisted of a ball-shaped bundle of white bark cloth attached to the end of a staff.  This symbol is to be seen represented upon the Hawaiian coat of arms; and Kalakaua’s puloulou, a gilded wooden ball on the end of a long staff, is preserved in the Bishop Museum.]

[Footnote 38:  Long life was the Polynesian idea of divine blessing.  Of Kualii the chanter boasts that he “lived to be carried to battle in a net.”  The word is kaikoko, “to carry on the back in a net,” as in the case of old and feeble persons.  Polynesian dialects contain a full vocabulary of age terms from infancy to old age.]