Lei Niho Palaoa Lei Niho Palaoa By David Young Like the jewel embellished crowns of European kings and queens and eagle feathered headdresses of North American plains Indian chiefs, Hawai`i’s ali‘i (chiefs) wore the lei niho palaoa to proclaim their sovereign authority. For almost a millennium, the symbolically carved pendant and its necklace support conveyed to their subjects a power which came directly from the gods. Even today, the lei niho palaoa is a powerful key to understanding how Hawaiian society and culture changed over time. Lei niho palaoa. Bishop Museum Collection Photo courtesy of David Franzen. The shape of the pendant has been described as a forward-thrusting tongue; when worn with its necklace of braided human hair, it rested just below the wearer’s chin, where it further enforced the extension of the tongue and designated chiefly authority. The tongue was an important feature to the Hawaiians, and most wooden images of Hawaiian gods portray a tongue or a full, open mouth as if it were speaking. Its subtle, symbolic form, unique to Polynesia, created a powerful image. The name used for this important signifier is interesting. Lei is the generic Hawaiian term for necklace. Niho palaoa has long been the generally accepted name for all Hawaiian hook-shaped pendants, whatever the substance from which they are carved, though the term has been confusing because niho is usually thought to mean “tooth.” However, the early A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language written by Lorrin Andrews in 1865 defines niho,v. as to bite with the teeth, and palaoa as whale or ivory. The common usage is further compromised by the fact that many of the early pendants collected by Captain James Cook in the eighteenth century were of shell rather than ivory. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, for instance, has a few small shell pendants in its collection described as "niho pupu" in their 1889 and 1895 entries appropriately, as the definition of püpü is shell. With the Hawaiians’ love of subtle or hidden meaning, the pendant was arguably seen as the shell or ivory that bites -- relating perhaps to the pronouncements of the ruling class. A proud, self-confident Hawaiian chiefess poses with her lei niho palaoa for Louis Choris, an artist on the Kotzebue expedition in 1816. The linguistic confusion likely came about because of an innate preference for the rare and hard won ivory for these prestige objects. Western contact and the eventual use of the islands as a stop on the route of the burgeoning trade of Northwest furs destined for China put Hawaiians in a position to trade for items they considered important. One of these was ivory, which until then had been obtained from the occasional sperm whale found stranded on island beaches. The teeth were so prized that ali`i would fight over them, since the scarcity of whale ivory ornaments and their ability to take a high polish added to the objects’ prestige and mana. As foreign contact increased, ivory became more readily available, first from the walrus tusks supplied by the fur traders and later sperm whale teeth supplied by the whalers. As a result, the use of shell, such as the frequently used Conus leopardus and other materials fell out of use; and the term niho palaoa became generic and eventually somewhat misconstrued. However, the clue to the correct meaning lies with the initial entries in the Bishop Museum catalogue of collections reflecting the precise descriptive terms used by the early Hawaiians. A shell pendant would be niho püpü, a coral pendant would be niho puna, a bone pendant would be niho iwi and a wooden one would be niho laau. Niho puna, an early coral ornament, 4-1/2 inches in length. Private collection. It was the shape of the niho palaoa, rather than the material it was made of, that was important. The early ornaments tend to be smaller and more varied in form than later ones. The hook pendant ornaments collected by Captain Cook’s expedition in 1779, for instance, vary in size from 3/4 inch to 3-3/4 inches and are made from a variety of materials. In the Cook Voyage journals, the pendant is described as "an ornament, in the form of a handle of a cup, about two inches long, and a half an inch broad, made of wood, stone, or ivory, finely polished, which is hung around the neck by fine threads of twisted hair doubled sometimes an hundred fold.” Adrienne Kaeppler confirmed approximately 20 ornamental pendants collected on the third voyage of Captain Cook. Most were strung on a necklace of twisted human hair strands. One necklace had six pendants and another consisted of three pendants. Two of the pendants were strung on a necklace of tiny shells. Eleven pendants were made of ivory, eight of shell and one of bone. Kaeppler also says the Cook and other early visitors to Hawaii felt that these hook pendants had supernatural significance and in early museums they are called idols. On the left, a lei niho püpü, an early shell ornament, 2.81 cm in length; at right, lei niho palaoa, 4 1/4 inches. Private collection. Unfinished pieces show stages in the making of an early shell ornament. Private collection. Equally as powerful in design as the pendant was the necklace that supports it. Bundles of human hair were commonly used; they were twisted in the earlier necklaces and braided with an eight-fold ply braid in later ones. Later necklaces were made up of a single strand of braided hair looped back and forth, with an average of 200 to 300 strands per side. It took 50 to 90 hairs braided together to make a single strand and if all the individual strands of hair were laid end to end, they would stretch more than four miles. Since not all the braided strands could fit through the hole in the ornament, the strands were looped on each respective side and then tied together with an olona fiber link that passed through the hole in the ornament and joined both sides. Early pendants. Top left: Niho püpü 11/16”, Top Right: Niho püpü 13/16”, Middle left: Niho palaoa 13/16”, Middle right Niho iwi 13/16”, Bottom right Niho pupu 1 13/16” Bottom left Niho pupu 1 3/4”. Private collections. Both male and female ali‘i wore lei niho palaoa during battle and on ceremonial occasions. The ornaments were regarded as important spoils of war, and individual ornaments were recognized for their particular characteristics. According to a story from the 1400s, a young man named ‘Umi was acknowledged as the son of Liloa (king of the Hamakua district), and thus his successor, by the niho palaoa he presented to his father. This pendant had been given to ‘Umi’s commoner mother, Akahi-a-Kuleana, by Liloa with instructions that his son present it to him to claim his birthright as his rightful successor. A nineteenth century lei niho palaoa with ivory , natural amber and Hutson Bay Trading Company beads strung in the necklace. Another legend, from the battle of Moku-‘ohai in 1782, relates that Ke‘e-au-moku, a chief with the army of Kamehameha, had fallen in battle. Kiwala‘o, the opposing chief, then called out to his warriors to be careful not to stain Ke‘e-au-moku's precious lei niho palaoa with their death thrust. But at that moment Kiwala‘o was struck with a sling stone hurled by the guardian of Ka-‘ahu-manu, the daughter of Ke‘e-au-moku, and Kiwala‘o fell on top of Ke‘e-au-moku, who rose up and cut Kiwala‘o’s throat with a shark-tooth knife. Much later, in the 1880s, the lei niho palaoa played a different role, as a precious object in the Hale Nau¨å Society, which was formed by King Kalakaua in an effort to recognize genealogy and revive elements of Hawaiian culture. This entry from the Bishop Museum’s collection records confirms “niho pupu” for item 7743, an early shell ornament. Courtesy Bishop Museum Photo by David Young Whether it was an earlier, undeveloped example or just a different style of lei niho palaoa, the lei ‘o.pu‘u is another pendant traditionally worn by chiefly Hawaiians. It has been described as a "bud shaped pendant of almost natural form." A number of these pendants were found in the burial called K¨å.‘ai 1 (a basket container burial, said to contain the bones of Liloa and Lono-i-ka-mahiki, who were 15th- and 16th-century ali‘i): there were eight turtle shell, five whale ivory, and five pig tusk pendants -- thought to have formed a necklace or bracelet. Because Hawaiians also wore simple drilled dog's and pig's tooth ornaments, additional evidence is required to confirm whether the lei niho palaoa style was an early style that had changed little, or if there was a progression of development from simple drilled teeth to lei ‘o.pu‘u to lei niho palaoa. The earliest radiocarbon-dated niho pupu pendant came from a 1967 excavation of a burial at Bellows Beach. It has the classic shape but is considered unfinished because there is no suspension hole. The pendant, two inches long, is made of "fossilized rock oyster.” Dating placed the ornament in a layer from 800 AD to 1000. This early date suggests that the niho palaoa form may have remained unchanged for at least a thousand years. (left to right): An early shell pendant , niho pupu, an ivory ornament, niho palaoa. Hawaiian scholar David Malo wrote that the Hawaiians considered the niho palaoa second in value only to the spectacular feather cloak. He further stated that lei niho palaoa were not common in ancient times, and only after the reign of Kamehameha I did they become somewhat more numerous. The size of the niho palaoa increased with the availability of raw ivory to make the ornament, but the shape changed little, despite saws and drills introduced by the European traders. The necklace of braided hair was sometimes replaced with ribbon, trade beads, or drilled ivory beads. Lei niho palaoa are found today in museums and private collections all over the world, and they still remain a powerful key to understanding the progression of Hawaiian society and culture. Selected Bibliography Andrews, Lorrin. A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language: New Edition, Island Heritage Publishing, 2003 Cook, James and James King. A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean... For making discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere... Resolution and Discovery, London 1784 Cox, J Halley. “The Lei Niho Palaoa” in Polynesian Cultural History, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 1967 Cox and Davenport. Hawaiian Sculpture Revised edition, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1974 Edge-Partingtion, James. Ethnographical Album of the Pacific Islands, Second Edition. SDI Publications, Bangkok Thailand, 1996 Kaeppler, Adrienne. “Artificial Curiosities” Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 1978 Malo, David. Hawaiian Antiquities Reprint, Edward Enterprises, Inc. Honolulu, HI 1951 Rose, Roger. Hawaii “The Royal Isles” Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 1980 Reconciling the Past Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 1992 Young, David, Na Mea Makamae: Hawaiian Treasures, Palapala Press, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, 1999
