Erdland relates that a Marshall Islander who died in 1906 remembered correctly the names of officers and scholars who came to the islands in the Chamisso party when he was a boy of 8 or 10.

Fornander notes that, in collecting Hawaiian chants, of the Kualii dating from about the seventeenth century and containing 618 lines, one copy collected on Hawaii, another on Oahu, did not vary in a single line; of the Hauikalani, written just before Kamehameha’s time and containing 527 lines, a copy from Hawaii and one from Maui differed only in the omission of a single word.

Tripping and stammering games were, besides, practiced to insure exact articulation. (See Turner, Samoa, p. 131; Thomson, pp. 16, 315.)]

[Footnote 3:  Emerson, Unwritten Literature, p. 24 (note).]

[Footnote 4:  This is well illustrated in Fornander’s story of Kaipalaoa’s disputation with the orators who gathered about Kalanialiiloa on Kauai.  Say the men: 

  “Kuu moku la e kuu moku,
   Moku kele i ka waa o Kaula,
   Moku kele i ka waa, Nihoa,
   Moku kele i ka waa, Niihau. 
   Lehua, Kauai, Molokai, Oahu,
   Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe,
   Moloklni, Kauiki, Mokuhano,
   Makaukiu, Makapu, Mokolii.”

   My island there, my island;
   Island to which my canoe sails, Kaula,
   Island to which my canoe sails, Nihoa,
   Island to which my canoe sails, Niihau. 
   Lehua, Kauai, Molokai, Oahu,
   Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe,
   Molokini, Kauiki, Mokuhano,
   Makaukiu, Makapu, Mokolii.

“You are beaten, young man; there are no islands left.  We have taken up the islands to be found, none left.”

Says the boy: 

  “Kuu moku e, kuu moku,
   O Mokuola, ulu ka ai,
   Ulu ka niu, ulu ka laau,
   Ku ka hale, holo ua holoholona.”

Here is my island, my island Mokuola, where grows food, The cocoanut grows, trees grow, Houses stand, animals run.

“There is an island for you.  It is an island.  It is in the sea.”

(This is a small island off Hilo, Hawaii.)

The men try again: 

  “He aina hau kinikini o Kohala,
   Na’u i helu a hookahi hau,
   I e hiku hau keu. 
   O ke ama hau la akahi,
   O ka iaku hau la alua,
   O ka ilihau la akolu,
   O ka laau hau la aha,
   O ke opu hau la alima,
   O ka nanuna hau la aone,
   O ka hau i ka mauna la ahiku.”

   A land of many hau trees is Kohala
   Out of a single hau tree I have counted out
   And found seven hau. 
   The hau for the outriggers makes one,
   The hau for the joining piece makes two,
   The hau bark makes three,
   The hau wood makes four,
   The hau bush makes five,
   The large hau tree makes six,
   The mountain hau makes seven.

“Say, young man, you will have no hau, for we have used it all.  There is none left.  If you find any more, you shall live, but if you fail you shall surely die.  We will twist your nose till you see the sun at Kumukena.  We will poke your eyes with the Kahili handle, and when the water runs out, our little god of disputation shall suck it up—­the god Kaneulupo.”