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A master canoe designer
(kahuna kalai wa'a) holds a pump drill and carries a small trimming adze
in a sennit sling around his neck. At upper left, in the high, misty forest, a
man cuts two grooves around the base of a koa tree, then breaks off the wood
between them, repeating the procedure until the tree falls.
Ku, in
his manifestation as Ku-pa'aike'e, was the patron spirit of canoe-makers. It
was believed that his wife, Lea, could appear before canoemakers as a little
woodpecker, the 'elepaio. If the bird alighted on a tree and pecked on
the bark, it was taken as a sign that the wood was damaged by rot; but if the
bird inspected the trunk and flew away without pecking, the wood was sound and
could be taken. At the selected tree, offerings of fish and pork were made to
Ku-pa'aike'e. The new canoe would be named and vested with status not unlike
that of a living person. As a great tree fell, the kahuna kalai wa'a
shouted, "Today you are a tree; tomorrow you will become a man."
After a canoe was roughly shaped (at left), long ropes were made fast to it.
For a canoe of great size an entire community might turn out, women shouting
encouragement as men cleared the way and hauled it down to the canoe house at
the shore, making an exciting event of heavy work. At the canoe halau
(upper right) the parts of the canoe received final shaping and finishing, and
were assembled with braided sennit. Paddles, spars, bailers and other
accessories were made ready. The man at right is smoothing the surface of a
paddle with abrasive coral and lava rasps, working from coarse to fine. Men too
old for heavy work sat in the canoe house, braiding miles of sennit (lower
left).
A typical assembly of the hull, gunwale strakes, and
crossbeams by lashings of sennit is depicted in the section view at right.
Lashing methods varied; some were extremely intricate, done by the master
builder in solitude lest others learn his technique; some were ornamented by
using both black and red braided sennit.
Below is the classical form
of Hawaiian double canoe (wa'a kaulua) as it had evolved by the time of
European contact.
Page 96, Ancient Hawaii
Link to mini-tour of Old Hawaii