Kii: National Wild Life Federation
MARGARET TITCOMB
with the collaboration of
MARY KAWENA PUKUI
NATIVE USE OF FISH IN HAWAII
University of Hawaii Press
Honolulu 1972
FISH, including shellfish, were the main protein-giving elements of the Hawaiian diet. Pig, dog, chicken and wild birds furnished some additional proteins but the comparatively small supply marked them more for the chief’s than the commoners’ use. Daily life was one of fishing and cultivating the plantations. Fishing required a search of the sea, from the areas within the reefs to the sea scarcely within sight of land. By salting, drying, impounding, the supply was made somewhat independent of weather conditions. Care was taken to avoid waste.
The sea was a great reservoir of food for the Hawaiians and they were fond of a wide variety; probably everything edible was consumed. “There is no animal food which a Sandwich Islander esteems so much as fish,” said a visitor in 1834. A catch was portioned out to all within the ‘ohana, or related community. When there was food no one went hungry. When supplies were abundant there was hearty indulgence in the joy of eating; when scarce, endurance was eased by the knowledge that effort would bring further supplies, except for the calamity of war or the occasional periods of long stormy weather.
Chiefs became epicurean in their taste, demanding rarities, or regal service, such as the supplying of live fish from far places. Priests prescribed certain fishes as acceptable to the gods, sometimes a fish was the essential object to offer the gods as well as eat after a period of sickness, and fish were used in some other ceremonies.
Certain sea creatures, most commonly sharks, sometimes became ’aumakua (personal gods) and were fed with regularity and recognized as individuals.
Fishing was one of the constant, necessary occupations. Everyone knew how to obtain fish by various techniques. The slave, the commoner, the lesser chiefs, the high chiefs, men, women and children got food from the sea by their own efforts. For some it was a duty, for most it was also a pleasure, for the chiefs it was a favourite sport. Children played about the shores and took what they pleased and could get from the shore pools, and shallow reef areas, and ate it when and as they pleased, raw or cooked. When old enough to follow their elders they learned by imitation how to get small fish and shellfish and limu (seaweed) from the sheltered waters, and later how to fish in deeper waters.
Every day saw many people, women in the majority, out on the reefs for hours, searching, collecting all that was edible and desirable. Calabashes tied to their persons floated along and held the catch. Doubtless the women made a merry social time of it too. To women belonged also the larger part of the task of gathering fish and shellfish from the mountain pools and streams, the ‘o‘opu (gobies) and little shrimps (‘opae) and other varieties. This collecting was done chiefly by feeling with the hands, poking with a stick, turning over stones and logs, with a net ready to catch the animals that darted out from cover. In times of freshet, men doubtless did the work of building a platform across a stream just under high water level to sluice off the less muddy waters where the ‘o‘opu took refuge from the silt washed into the stream. These waters were led off on to a plain and the fish were stranded on the porous soil, and easily picked up .
The chiefs were as fond of ocean fishing as commoners and went fishing as a pastime, either alone or with a few companions, or grandly with a large number of retainers, and with the po‘o lawai‘a (head fisherman). Meares (68a, p. 353) notes an occasion when Kamehameha I, the most powerful chief in Hawaii, came in from a fishing party. When the first group of missionaries came to Hawaii and were trying to persuade Kamehameha II to let them settle at Oahu, Ka‘ahumanu, the widow of Kamehameha I, joined the conference, “having come in from a successful fishing expedition in a double sailing canoe” . Some kinds of fishing called for such a lot of gear that only chiefs or professional fishermen could use those methods. There were nets many fathoms deep, and a greater number of fathoms long, for surrounding a school of fish at sea. There was niuhi (man-eater shark) fishing that required vast amounts of bait as lure. Mrs. Beckley (4, p. 19) called it the game of kings.
Fishing as a profession belonged to the po‘o lawai‘a and his company of apprentices. He went fishing with the chief, when that was the chief’s pleasure. He fished at the order of the chief, transmitted through the chief’s kahu (steward), or he went fishing when he wished to do so himself. Fishing was his life’s occupation. He might be a chief himself, of lower rank than the high chief under whom he lived, or he might be a commoner. He was, at any rate, a man of extensive knowledge, and highly honoured. Most of his knowledge was handed down to him from an older relative or a friend. Such teachers chose their legatees with great care, and it was a pupil’s duty to transmit his learning, augmented by his own experience, to his own chosen pupils. His knowledge comprised the techniques of manufacture and use of apparatus needed, though it was usually made for him by other craftsmen, the methods of capture, habitats of the various fish, seasons of their spawning, and of their coming and going if they were roaming fish that moved in schools, and their particular peculiarities of response to attempts at capture.
Most fishing expeditions started before dawn, the fishermen getting up and assembling silently, without speech that might offend the gods, and spoil the luck. The po‘o lawai‘a had to know how to judge the weather, how to divine the meaning of omens in dreams and in the clouds, and how to recognize the stars as indicators of time and direction, bird flights as indicators of schools of fish―birds being rivals of fishermen in catching and consuming fish. He had to be in rapport with the gods of fishing and his own personal gods, and avoid the enmity and therefore the curses of his fellowmen. He had to know how to manipulate his canoe, how to right it at sea, as did all Hawaiians. And he had to choose and train and manage his assistants, for most fishing beyond the reef was done by fishermen in concert. On shore there might be one more member of the party, the kilo, or watcher. Posted on a high point of land, this man watched for the expected schools of fish. Like a band leader, he had his own individual manner of signaling. Some used long pieces of bamboo, and some had other aids to make themselves more easily seen, and some used only their arms. By the kilo’s motions he steered the fleet of canoes around the school. When he ceased signaling and sat down it was equivalent to saying, “You’ve got it.” The kilo went to sea very little, but he did go when mālolo (flying fish) was the object of the expedition for a school of mālolo is often beyond signaling distance from shore. Mrs. Beckley says that the success of surrounding a school was entirely up to the kilo. It has been assumed by some that Hawaiians did not get far from land and did no deep-sea fishing. Beckley states that fishing canoes sometimes went “so far out from land as to be entirely out of sight of the low lands and mountain slopes and took their bearing … from the positions of the different mountain peaks … ”
The full story of methods and customs in fishing is extensive. It is certain that everyone ate fish, and fishing was a constant occupation. Kelly (50, p. 9) says, “In my opinion, no people ever lived who had a more intimate knowledge of fish and their habits, and knew so well how to catch them as the Hawaiians … ”
FOOD EXCHANGE
Shore localities differed greatly in varieties of fish, and some became famous in chant and tale for their specialties. Variety in foods was appreciated and journeys were made to get that for which there was a wish or craving. Chiefs had only to command, and servants procured what was wanted. Commoners procured what they wanted by a kind of courtesy barter, usually within their own ‘ohana, or related community. Handy and Pukui have defined the ‘ohana:―
The fundamental unit in the social organization…was the dispersed community of ‘ohana, or relatives by blood, marriage, and adoption, living some inland and some near the sea but concentrated geographically in, and tied by ancestry, birth and sentiment to a particular locality, which was called the ‘aina… Between households within the ‘ohana there is constant sharing and exchange of foods and of utilitarian articles and also of services, not in barter but as voluntary (though decidedly obligatory) giving. Ohana living inland (ko kula ūka), raising taro, bananas, wauke, and olonā, and needing coconuts, gourds, and marine foods, will take a gift to some ‘ohana living near the shore (ko kula kai) and in return will receive fish or whatever is needed. The fisherman needing poi or ‘awa will take fish, squid or lobster upland to a household known to have taro, and will return with his kalo or pa‘i-‘ai (hard poi). A woman from seaward, wanting some medicinal plant, or some sugar cane perhaps, growing on the land of a relative living inland will take with her a basket of shellfish or some edible seaweed and will return with her stalks of cane and her medicine. In other words, it is the ‘ohana that constitutes the community within which the economic life moves…
The pivot of the ‘ohana is the haku (master, director), the elder male of the senior branch of the whole ‘ohana. The haku divided the catch of fish amongst the households of the ‘ohana which had participated in the fishing; he presided over family councils; and in general he had authority over the individuals and households in all such matters as entertaining strangers and welcoming the ali‘i, in supervising work, worship and planned communal activities. The haku was functioning head of an ‘ohana. The term…has no relation to class, politics or occupation. There were haku of ali‘i (chiefly) families, or kahuna families, or fishing and planting families…
I ka aumakua mai ka hikina a i ke komohana
I uka, i kai, ia Ku-ula, ia Aiai.
Na Hinai hooulu ka i'a
Hina hooulu i 'ai
E ai i ka'u mea e ha'awi aku ai
Ma Hamakua o ke ala kipi
E kōʻai a'e i ka pali.
Ho mai ka maika'i no ka lawaiʻa.
I hiki ai ke hopu i ka uhu kumu 'ole ma kai.
ʻO ka puhi niho manumanu,
E lawe mai i ka nohona
ʻO ka ʻanae nui e hoʻolohe ana i nā leo nui.
ʻO ka liʻiliʻi olola e moe ana i ka wai.
Ka uauoa e noho kokoke ana i kahakai.
Ka he'e nui o Haaaluea,
O ke kole maka 'onaona, noho i ka lua.
E holo ana me ka manini kahakaha
Me ka palahi'a ana i ka hou-kahi
Hiki ke hopu i ke kumu nui e like ka lehua,
Ka wela o ka ili 'ula
ʻO ka liʻiliʻi, kalekale māmā
ʻO ka ʻau a'u, ka iʻa 'o'oi
ʻO ka iʻa uku maika'i,
ʻO ka umaumalei ke aliʻi iʻa.
'O ka 'oe'oe o ka hohonu,
ʻO ka aku, ka i'a hookamumu,
ʻO ka opelu kolilelile
Ka malolo e lele ana i ka nalu e pi'i a'e.
Lele me na eheu luheluhe,
Ka puhiki'i, e lele kapakahi
ʻO ka iʻa iheihe hoʻi,
ʻO ka iʻa a'u me ka nuku 'oi'oi
A me ka 'ahi mālailena o Kalae.
Hoʻopiha i ka 'ie ma ke kua.
Eli hohonu, eli hohonu,
E ho mai ke ola ma ka honua.
Hoʻokuʻu ʻia ka upu.
--------------------------------
To the aumakua from the east to the west
To those of the upland, those of the shore, to Ku-ula, to Aiai.
To Hina-who-produces-fish,
To Hina-who-produces-plant foods,
Eat that which I give
At Hamakua of the steep trail
That winds up the precipice.
Blow luck for the fisherman.
That he may catch the gumless uhu at sea,
The eel with irregular teeth,
To bring back to the home
The big mullet that listens to loud noises,
The little olola that sleeps on the water,
The uauoa fish that lives near the shore,
The great octopus of Haaluea,
The bright-eyed kole that dwells in holes,
Swimming about with the stripe-skinned manini
And the gliding hou-kahi.
May he catch the great kumu (coloured like) the lehua,
The red-skinned awela,
The little, swift kalekale
The swimming a'u, the sharp billed fish
The good uku fish,
The umaumalei, chief of fish,
The 'oe'oe fish of the deep,
The aku fish that makes a rumbling noise,
The glistening opelu fish,
The malolo that flies over the rising wave,
Flies with drooping wings,
The puhiki‘i (flying) crookedly,
The iheihe fish, too,
The a‘u fish with a long snout,
And the strong gilled ‘ahi of Kalae.
Fill the lauhala (baskets) to carry on the back.
Dig profoundly, dig deeply,
Grant life to us on this earth.
Our prayer is freed.
SUPPLY AND CONSERVATION
A knowledge of the abundance of fish and the supply procured for consumption in pre-European days can only be partially arrived at, as well as whether the supply decreased after discovery of the islands and the great changes which occurred in ways of living for the Hawaiians. With most of the population (at least 100,000) devoted to procuring enough food to eat, and considering what hearty appetites outdoor living created, it is likely that the amounts of fish obtained and needed were very large indeed, especially as land animals were not counted on as a steady part of the diet.
It is but natural to look back on the “good old days” and think of them as better. It is what some Hawaiians did as time went on after the irrevocable changes had occurred in their ways of living. In the native newspapers, the question was often asked, “Why are fish so scarce and prices so high?”
How abundant had been the supplies? Some impressions of lavish supplies for feasts are vivid. Certainly in later days there were few feasts as abundant as that recorded in 1814 by Manini.
In old days 400 aku (bonito) might be caught with the bait from a single mālau (small canoe to hold live bait on deep sea expeditions), and when the double canoes, fleets of single canoes, and large, single canoes came to shore, there was trading, peddling, selling for poi, for pounded taro, awa root, tapa … until the fisherman was well provided…
A large haul of a big deep-sea net, such as the ho‘olewalewa, would fill 10 to 20 canoes.
Kamakau also makes the statement that sometimes with good luck fishermen secured “so many that they rotted and a stench arose and they had to be fed to the dogs and pigs, for there were too many for slicing, salting, and drying. Some were even used as fuel to cook the others”. The statement about using fish as fuel is borne out by Mrs. Pukui and her mother, Pa‘ahana Wiggin. In Ka‘u, a dry land where wood is scarce, an overabundance of fish, as when a large school was caught, was dried and devoted to fuel, because of its oil content.
Kamakau makes note of especially abundant years, 1830-1831.
The Lord had blessed the land during those years. Fish were so plentiful, especially at Waialua and Waianae, that pigs and dogs feasted on those that rotted. On Hawaii and Kauai there was the same abundance. The fish caught were the uwiwi, the a‘ua‘u, opelu, akule, alalauwa, kala, welea, kalaliilii (also called pahikaua), he‘e kukulli… At Molokai, kawakawa, aku and ahi were simply washed up on the beach and flying fish came in huge schools. At Wailua the kahala fishing grounds were so rich a man could catch as many as 20 to 40 at one haul. Perhaps this blessing upon the land was in compensation for the difficulties into which the government was falling and the extinction of the old families of chiefs and commoners which occurred at this time.
It is difficult to guess what the everyday consumption was. But the impression remained among Hawaiians of later days that there had been plenty. One Hawaiian writes, in 1923 ), that: “This (matter of fish supply) is going to be an important question for several generations, to understand why there was so much fish in the days of our ancestors and so little in our time although much meat and fish is now imported to help supply the people with food.”
To conserve the supply of all resources was constantly in the Hawaiian mind. When plants were taken from the forest, some were always left to replenish the supply. Replanting was done without fail at the proper time as beds of taro and sweet potatoes were used. Fishing grounds were never depleted, for the fishermen knew that should all the fish be taken from a special feeding spot (ko‘a) other fish would not move in to replenish the area. When such a spot was discovered it was as good luck as finding a mine, and fish were fed sweet potatoes and pumpkins (after their introduction) and other vegetables so that the fish would remain and increase. When the fish became accustomed to the good spot, frequented it constantly, and had waxed fat, then the supply was drawn upon carefully. Not only draining it completely was avoided, but also taking so many that the rest of the fish would be alarmed. At the base of this action to conserve was the belief that the gods would have been displeased by greediness or waste.
Tabus were an instrument in the conservation program. The political power was concentrated in the upper class, the chiefs, and the laws of the land and of the sea were their edicts. The penalties for breaking tabus were heavy, often the death penalty for what seems to us a trifling fault. This held the people in a strict discipline. Besides tabus, the relationship with the gods was a powerful determinant of action. The lesser gods that each person had, personal gods, as well as the greater gods whose power was universal, were ever present. Their will was interpreted through the priests, but understood well by the people too. To conserve resources was a custom rigidly adhered to. It was the will of the chiefs, and also the will of the gods, and it was obviously wise. When a man broke this law he expected punishment from the chief’s agent (konohiki), if his act was detected, but punishment from the gods certainly, for no knowledge was hidden from their perception. Man appealed to his gods for good luck, but the gods expected man to do his share in making it possible.
Besides the rule of taking only part of a supply of fish, fishing was prohibited during the spawning seasons. Perhaps the most important and well-known tabu of this sort was that governing the aku and the ‘opelu (ocean bonito and mackerel), deep sea fish that move in schools and were taken in bountiful quantity when the schools were running. Manby, one of Vancouver’s officers, notes : “The present taboo Bower (?) is an invocation to the god that presides over fish; it is annually observed at this season of the year, as a notion prevails, were this ceremony neglected, the finny tribe would immediately quit the shores of Owyhee.” These two fish were important in the fish supply and, as Vancouver observed : “These are not lawful to be taken at the same time.” Malo (63, p. 251) states that: “For six months of the year the ‘opelu might be eaten and the aku was tabu, and was not to be eaten by chiefs or commoners. Then again, for other six months the aku might be eaten, and the ‘opelu in turn was tabu. Thus it was every year.” The aku and ‘opelu were almost sacred fish as, according to tradition, they had saved an early voyager coming to Hawaii from Tahiti from storms at sea by quieting the waters. “When the wind kicked up a sea, the aku would frisk and the ‘opelu would assemble together, as a result of which the ocean would entirely calm down.” (63, p. 25.) But the motive for placing the tabu was probably to protect the supply during spawning and juvenal season.
Mrs. Pukui gives an interesting account of the tabu system governing fishing seasons in her district, Ka‘u, in Hawaii:‒
There was never a time when all fishing was tabu. When inshore fishing was tabu, deep sea fishing (lawai‘a-o-kai-uli) was permitted, and vice versa. Summer was the time when fish were most abundant and therefore the permitted time for inshore fishing. Salt was gathered at this time, also, and large quantities of fish were dried. Inland crops were tilled, and supplies from the higher lands procured. In winter, deep sea fishing was permitted, and the sweet potatoes that grew in large patches near the shore were cultivated. A tabu for the inshore fishing covered also all the growths in that area, the seaweeds, and shellfish, as well as the fish. When the kahuna had examined the inshore area, and noted the condition of the animal and plant growths, and decided that they were ready for use, that is, that the new growth had had a chance to mature and become established, he so reported to the chief of the area, and the chief ended the tabu. For several days it remained the right of the chief to have all the sea foods that were gathered, according to his orders, reserved for his use, and that of his household and retinue. After this, a lesser number of days were the privilege of the konohiki. Following this period the area was declared open (noa) to the use of all.
There are not sufficient records to tell whether districts varied greatly in this respect, or whether the rhythm of the seasons varied greatly in separate areas. The nature of the fish population doubtless necessitated special tabus in some areas.
For some fish protection was unnecessary. According to one writer (75, 43):‒
Fish such as the manini, the kole, the uhu, the kumu and the palani and the kala and many others went into sea pools to live until the tiny fish were grown. No kapus were imposed on them at the spawning season. The mullet, squid, aku, opelu and other fish bore their young in a place that was not sheltered… They were made kapu when the spawning season was near until the months for this duty were over.
The fishing grounds from the coral reef to the sea beach are for the landlords and for the tenants of their several lands, but not for others. But if that species of fish which the landlord selects as his own personal portion should go on to the grounds which are given to the common people, then that species of fish, and that only, is tabooed; if the squid, then the squid only; or if some other species of fish, that only and not the squid. And thus it shall be in all places all over the islands; if the squid, that only; and if in some other place it be another fish, then that only and not the squid.
Rules and regulations follow, attempting to protect each class from abusing another. The tax officers for the king were armed with power of placing tabus “at the proper
* The meaning of these terms is: kilohe‘e grounds‒the area shallow enough for wading, or examining the bottom from a canoe, perhaps with the aid of the oiliness of pounded kukui nut to smooth the surface of the water; the lūhe‘e grounds‒the area where the water was too deep for the bottom to be in sight and the he‘e (octopus) had to be caught by line and cowrie shell lure; the mālolo grounds were certain rough and choppy areas, crossed by currents, where the mālolo (flying-fish) habitually ran. These were deep places, but were not considered the open ocean. (Pukui, inf.)
season” upon certain fishing grounds “which are known to the people to have shoals of fish remaining upon them.” A list of such fishing grounds is enumerated for Oahu and Molokai. For the other islands, special fish were subject to tabus, if the amount were over one canoe load.
In Lanai, the bonito and the parrot-fish. On Maui, the kulekū* (akule-kū) of Honua‘ula and other places. On Hawaii, the albicore. On Kauai, the mullet of Huleia, Anehola, Kahili, and Hanalei, and the squid and fresh-water fish of Mana, the permanent shoal fish of Niihau, and all the transient shoal fish from Hawaii to Niihau …
But no restrictions whatever shall by any means be laid on the sea without the reef (evidently meaning outside the areas already mentioned) even to the deepest ocean, though those particular fish which the general tax officer prohibits, and those of the landlords which swim into those seas, are taboo … fine is specified above.
Because chiefs had absolute power, they could relax their own tabus when they wished. Ka‘ahumanu (favourite queen of Kamehameha I) was devoted to the people. Of her, Kamakau (48, Chap. 19) says:―
“In certain years she allowed the people to fish in the tapu water of Oahu and forbade the landlords to prevent them from taking fish usually restricted for the chiefs, such as the uhu, opule, he‘e and kahala. For a time there were no tapu fishing grounds for Oahu.”
Modification of the laws continued as time went on. The transient shoal fish were defined: akule, ‘anaeholo, alalauwā, uhu-ka‘i, kaweleā, kawakawa, kala-kū. The fish which each landlord set aside for himself had to be proclaimed so that it was clear to the people which fish was tabu, and the director of the government press was required to publish a list of these fish and the localities in which they were tabu. Finally, in 1845, this privilege of having exclusive right to one kind of fish was exchangeable for the right of tabuing all fish over a landlord’s fishing ground for a certain length of time. The “royal” fish were defined―certain fish in certain localities noted for their abundance. “These shall be divided equally between the king and the fisherman.” (13, p. 364). An interesting point covered was, “On all the prohibited fishing grounds the landlords shall be entitled to one species of fish and those who have walled fish ponds shall be allowed to scoop up small fish to replenish their ponds.”
In 1850, it was recognized that “Fish belonging to the government are productive of little revenue,” and the laws caused considerable trouble, therefore all the government fishing grounds and fish tabu to the government (the King) were turned over to the people. In 1859, the laws were codified, and still the principle of conservation was adhered to, “for the protection of … fishing grounds and minister of the interior may taboo the taking of fish thereon at certain seasons of the year”.
In 1927, Jordan and others (42, p. 650) wrote:―
The fauna of the reefs is much less abundant than in the period of the first extensive explorations, those of Dr. Oliver P. Jenkins, in 1889, and of Jordan and Evermann in 1901. Probably no species had been exterminated by overfishing, but many once common have now become rare.
Many factors influenced the problem of getting an abundance of fish food for Hawaiians in haole (literally foreigners―post discovery) times, the let-down of the strict discipline of the tabu system, with which the replacing haole forms of laws and government control did not coincide perfectly, the bringing in of other racial elements, as the Chinese and Japanese, who had strong commercial instincts, even to holding the price by limiting the supply in the markets, a scheme completely foreign to Hawaiian concepts, and the changed condition that took many Hawaiians away from shores and into a more urban way of living.
It is evident that the principle of conservation was a strong factor in Hawaiian sea-food economy. Some of the elements of the old pattern carried over far into European times, but the pattern had to receive constant modification in the hybrid culture. It has not yet been made to fit perfectly.
Certain foods were tabued to women, among them some fish. Cobb was informed that these were the kūmū, moano, ulua and hāhālua. Pogue (73, p. 37) states:―
It was not proper for the women to eat these: pig, bananas, ulua fish, kumu fish, niuhi shark, whale, nuao fish, hahalua fish, sting ray, the haelepo, and other things too numerous to be counted by man. A woman was killed if caught eating these things.
Malo lists: ulua, kūmū, niūhi, nāi‘a, whale, nūao, hāhālua, hihimanu, and hailepo. During a woman’s pregnancy, other fish were tabu also―aku, ‘opelu, mullet, or any other white-fleshed fish, or any fish salted by others. It was forbidden to her to salt fish herself, for if any mishap occurred and the fish turned out to be improperly salted so that it did not keep, such inefficiency resulted in a calamity to the child. It would be apt to have a periodical catarrhal condition of the nose that was most unpleasant. It was also forbidden for pregnant women to string fish.
It was not forbidden to women, evidently, to touch tabued fish. Kamakau says (47, Chap. 4): “The women separate the tapu food for the men’s house from those for the women’s eating house.” For men and women to eat together at any time was forbidden.
When seasonal tabus were lifted, women had to wait longer than men. Malo (63, p. 196) describes the elaborate rules that governed the observance of the makahiki festival which Handy (33, p. 296) calls the first fruits and harvest festival. At the close of the period of days which covered the ritual, the tapus were gradually lifted. On one day fish was caught, and the “male chiefs and the men ate of the fresh fish … but not the women.” Several days later, “the queen and all of the women ate of the fresh fish from the ocean. This observance was called Kala-hua.” Even the female gods had to wait until men were satisfied. As Kamakau says (47, Chap. 4, p. 62):―
(In kala fishing) the head fisherman acted as the kahuna who prayed to the aumakua for their blessing. When the prayer had freed the kapu the fishermen from one end of the land to the other ate; and when they had eaten then they gave fish to the women’s house for the female aumakua.
Vancouver (85, Vol. III, 18-19) makes note of the tabu of the aku, “it should cease with the men on the morning of the 4th, and with the women on the day following.”